With one dissent, Lake Zurich passes 2022 budget

After clashing over its size, Lake Zurich leaders passed the village's 2022 budget, which calls for increased spending amid the economic recovery from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The budget totals $59.9 million, an increase of about $48 million from the 2020 budget and about $52 million from last year's.

“I find it absolutely wrong that we are attempting to pass a budget that's almost 17% over last year,” said Trustee Janice Gannon, who was the budget's lone opponent on the board. “Lake Zurich needs to take a stand and be conservative and responsible.”

Trustee Jonathan Sprawka said the year-to-year budget increase was a result of important projects that leaders had to delay during the pandemic.

“It's our roads, it's our water delivery, it's sewers. These things are critical to maintaining a quality community,” Sprawka said. “They're table stakes, candidly, in a community of our size and maturity. ... We need to invest in those programs to keep them moving forward.”

Village Finance Director Amy Sparkowski said before the meeting that the village can spend on needed infrastructure projects in 2022 because the staff was able to save in previous years.

“We are again being very conservative with our revenue projections but are still able to include major infrastructure projects and a high quality of service for residents,” Sparkowski said.

Among the top infrastructure projects planned are $2.3 million for roads, $2.59 million in land and building improvements, and $5.45 million in water and sewer improvements, according to village documents.

Mayor Tom Poynton defended the budget and pointed out that if circumstances change, the village staff will be top of it and adapt as needed. He compared the village's budget to an individual's budget and said in both cases there were debts to deal with but money coming in to pay them.

“We're not any different. I wonder how many people in this room have a AAA bond rating, though,” Poynton said looking out at the crowd in the village hall basement. “I'm guessing not too many.”

Sparkowski said that often during the pandemic, village employees who resigned or retired went unreplaced. She said the budget calls for those openings to be filled and for a new employee to be hired, putting the village workforce at 157 positions.

The budget passed 4-1. Joining Sprawka and Poynton in voting “yes” were Dan Bobrowski and Greg Weider.

After the vote, Poynton said he'd spoken with Mary Beth Euker and Marc Spacone, the two trustees who were unable to attend the meeting, and both told him they would have voted in favor of the budget.