Water, garbage rate hikes ahead for Mount Prospect?

Last year’s budget process was painful for Mount Prospect, which in the face of a $3 million deficit reduced the village’s work force by 30 employees.

There won’t be layoffs this year, but that doesn’t mean the 2012 budget process will be pain free.

Finance Director David Erb presented an $87.6 million budget plan to village trustees Tuesday that features a 5 percent hike in water rates, a $25 increase in garbage collection fees and a 4.33 percent property tax increase.

For the owner of a home with an equalized assessed value of $115,000, Erb said, the property tax hike means an extra $39 a year, a jump from $908 to $947.

The overall budget is just two-tenths of 1 percent larger than the 2011 plan, and estimates a $857,000 deficit. The operating budget — which covers day-to-day expenses — is down 1.1 percent. It’s the second consecutive year the operating budget has decreased.

Trustee Steven Polit tried to put the water increase in perspective, saying it “equates to about $6.30 every billing period.”

Erb said the village took a substantial financial hit this year from several bad weather events: the blizzard in February, a tornado in June and record rainfall in July. All told, the bad weather cost the village about $900,000, Erb said. The only reimbursement, he added, came from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which awarded the village $142,000.