Buffalo Grove leaders pleased with balanced budget, cuts
Buffalo Grove leaders praised the work of village staff Monday after a 2 1/2-hour presentation on next year’s balanced, $58.3 million budget that officials say should not lead to reduced services despite nearly $1 million in spending cuts.
“I have written and read budgets for the past 33 years. This is the best budget I have ever seen or read,” Trustee Beverly Sussman said. “I truly believe this is the Academy Award of budgets.”
Village Manager Dane Bragg referred to the 2012 budget as a “maintenance budget.” Expenses are projected at $58.3 million — down from $59.3 million in 2011 — while revenues are targeted at $59.1 million, down from last year’s budget target of $59.7 million.
The budget is expected to be adopted at the Dec. 5 village board meeting, with a public hearing on an appropriation ordinance on Dec. 19.
Bragg said that for the third straight year, the village’s corporate fund — which covers general operations, including police, fire and public works — is almost flat, with the village projecting expenses of $33.4 million, up from $33.3 million the previous year.
Most of that money goes toward personnel, and that is where the village is committed to staying lean, officials said. One way the village is achieving that is through the Voluntary Separation Incentive program, which provides incentives for employees to leave their positions, enabling the village to either hire replacements at a lower salary or leave the jobs vacant.
The budget calls for 228 full-time positions and 92 part-time positions in 2012, a 2.5 percent decrease from 2011.
“At this point, we are at the lowest (staffing) level in at least 15 years,” Bragg said. “We’re down about 5 percent since 2005, and we’re down a little over 8 percent since 2000.”
But Bragg assured the board that there would be no reduction in services at this point. The most noticeable impact, he said, remains on the street program. “We just have not had the dollars there to fund the resurfacing program to the point that we would like it to be,” he said.
Village President Jeffrey Braiman noted that residents will receive good news about the taxes collected by the village next year. The 2011 proposed levy, excluding debt service, is set at $13,263,100, 1.33 percent above the final 2010 extension.
As for capital expenditures in 2012, the budget calls for a total of $2 million, an increase of 6 percent, to be set aside for key projects.
The goals for economic development included the development of the Milwaukee Avenue Corridor, with plans for the long-awaited Berenesa Plaza near Deerfield Parkway and the Land & Lakes Landfill property north of Busch Parkway. The latter is still awaiting approval from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency for a post-closure landfill permit.