Expenditures, revenues up in proposed Bartlett budget

Revenues and expenditures are projected to go up in Bartlett’s 2013-14 proposed budget, which village officials say is balanced without the use of money from the general fund balance.

Total expenditures amount to about $56.2 million for all funds and purposes — a 15.9 percent increase from last year. Operating expenditures are up by 6.4 percent, to about $39.5 million.

The budget includes the purchase of about $881,000 in replacement vehicles for the police, public works, building and golf departments that have been deferred in prior years’ budgets. There is also an increase in the police pension and debt levy.

Capital projects, expenditures on long-term needs that can vary sharply from year to year, amount to $16.7 million, or about 30 percent, of the expenditures. Some of those projects include $2.1 million in economic development activity for the Brewster Creek and Blue Heron/Bluff City Tax Increment Financing District; barium and radium removal from a well; continued work on the West Bartlett Road streetscape and a roadway maintenance project.

Public works and public safety come in as the second and third largest portions of expenditures, together totaling to about $27.2 million.

The budget includes the hiring of three full-time equivalent personnel, including one maintenance worker in the streets department and two police officers.

“I’m optimistic that if we continue to very carefully, and frankly slowly, reinstate critical cuts and evaluate our deferrals for many years that balancing the budget may become less arduous in future years,” said Village Administrator Valerie Salmons.

Due in part to “pretty substantial” increases from the state income tax, revenues are also up, by about 10.6 percent, to about $52.1 million, according to finance director Jeff Martynowicz.

Income taxes are in a group of “other taxes” that include the sales, telecom, local use and recently implemented electricity and gas taxes. Together they make up $16.4 million of the village’s revenue.

“We’ve had a little bit of that revenue rejuvenation going on, and that’s a good thing,” Martynowicz said.

Charges for services, such as water, sewer and parking, are the second largest source of revenues, totaling at $12.8 million, and followed by property taxes, which make up $10 million.

The budget does not include any new taxes or fees, and for a fourth year, there is no increase in the general corporate levy, Martynowicz said.

The board will continue the discussion on the budget at a meeting on Tuesday, March 19.