Algonquin official looks at upside of budget document

Algonquin will take the lemons the sour economy has dealt them and turn them into lemonade, said Village Manager William Ganek.

Ganek on Tuesday night unveiled the village's general fund budget for the upcoming fiscal year that shaves expenses by imposing a hiring freeze and holding off on certain purchases either until the second half of the fiscal year or when funds become available.

If a vacancy becomes available, however, the village would delay hiring someone, unless a position was critical to the town's operation, Ganek said.

"That's the lemons," Ganek said of the hiring freeze. "The lemonade is we are not letting people go in this village."

At the same time, the village has no plans to cut existing programs or events.

For example, the village will continue to put on outdoor concerts, maintain the business retention program and keep all police-related programs in place - the hiring freeze and scaling back on purchases makes all of that possible, officials said.

Sales tax in Algonquin is down from last year, while real estate and income tax revenues have leveled off, Ganek said.

Moreover, the village only issued 11 occupancy permits last year, a 71 percent drop from last year.

As a result, the upcoming $18.2 million budget is about $800,000 less - or 4.5 percent lower than the one for the last fiscal year.

Personnel and their benefits comprise 72 percent of that balanced budget, with 47 percent of it earmarked for police.

The village plans on replacing three squad cars at a cost of $66,006 and spending $36,000 on a police radio system.

It also will contribute $769,000 to the police pension plan, a figure that alarmed Village President John Schmitt.

"Is there any way to control that police pension?" he asked. "How will it look in 10 years?"

Ganek replied that Schmitt should take those concerns to Springfield.

Finally, the village has vowed to "squeeze more lemon juice of out the lemons," by continuously monitoring the effectiveness of its operations and asking employees to do more with less.

Hopefully, the village's fortunes will improve as time goes on.

"I'm very positive this one year, but three years from now, it might be a lot more difficult for me to be positive," Ganek said.

The fiscal year begins May 1.