No 2012 levy increase for Wheeling

After much discussion, Wheeling trustees kept to their promise and moved forward with a 2012 budget without a tax levy increase for residents.

Staff originally recommended a 7.5 percent tax levy increase for 2012, which would help offset the more than $3 million deficit the city was projecting, but trustees met on Tuesday to discuss budget cuts to avoid an increase. The outcome is a budget with a 0 percent increase, but the village is projecting nearly a $1 million deficit for next year.

One option considered was to eliminate senior and social services programs, but that was unanimously rejected. The board also turned down the idea of eliminating one of the three ambulances in the village because that would cause a spike in response times.

Cuts that were made include not filling a vacant public works maintenance position, saving $80,000. Village computers are still operating on Microsoft Office 2003 and will not be updated, saving another $20,000. Firefighter overtime was cut with the approval of Fire Chief Keith MacIsaac, saving $30,000.

The board also decided to shift $1.3 million from debt service to capital projects like street repairs.

“We’re hoping to put some of that money toward the roads,” said Anthony Stavros, public works director. “We are falling behind and have some really bad streets in town.”

Village Manager Jon Sfondilis said work is under way to study the state of village roads.

The village was scheduled to contribute nearly $1 million to the capital equipment replacement fund, but with many vehicle replacements years away, they approved only transferring half the scheduled amount for 2012.

With these and other savings, the projected deficit is $979,122, which trustees said they prefer to cover out of reserves instead of increasing taxes.

Although Wheeling has drawn down on its reserves in the past few years — from having nearly 70 percent of the general fund balance in reserves in 2007, to a projected reserve balance of nearly 40 percent for 2012 — the village is still considerably above its goal of keeping at least 25 percent in reserves.

The board rejected increasing the sales tax or imposing a vehicle sticker program to increase revenue, but Trustee Bill Hein said these revenue options may be on the table in the future.

“No one up here wants to raise these taxes, but sooner or later we might have to bite the bullet and bring in more revenue,” he said.

Although the village is not increasing the city portion of the tax levy for residents, the amount residents pay may still shift because of changes to their property assessments and increases from other taxing bodies.