Brookfield may use water funds to help cash flow

Brookfield’s village board is expected to vote on Sept. 28 to loan up to $1 million from its water fund to the general fund in order to cover expenses if tax receipts come in any later this fall.

Second installment tax bills from Cook County are supposed to arrive in the mail by Sept. 1, but the county has still not sent them out to property owners. However, the county may be able to get the bills out by Oct.1, which means tax receipts could come in by mid-October.

If that happens, “we might not need the loan,” said Doug Cooper, Brookfield’s finance director.

However, Cook County has in recent years shown the ability to get tax bills out very late, and Brookfield just doesn’t have the cash reserves in its general operating fund to weather the storm if that happens.

According to Cooper, as of last week, the village had about $600,000 in its general operating fund, which pays for day-to-day expenses like salaries for village employees.

That amount of money is enough to address the next two payrolls, said Cooper.

Until now, “we’ve been able to get by with the money coming over the counter to make payroll,” Cooper said.

The village expects $3.2 million in tax receipts when tax bills are finally sent out.

For the past two years, Brookfield has taken out a line of credit from First National Bank of Brookfield to help it when cash flow was tight.

Cooper recommended a loan from the water fund since he expected that the general fund would be able to repay the loan, at 4 percent interest, quickly. Any inter-fund loans must be reconciled by the end of the fiscal year, according to state law. Brookfield’s fiscal year ends Dec. 31.

“This will be very short term,” Cooper said. “I know this will be for two months, at the most.”

The receipt of the second installment of tax money won’t solve the village’s long-term cash position, however, as officials have pointed out for the past year. The village board will begin discussions on the 2010 budget at a workshop scheduled for Monday, Oct. 5 at 6 p.m. at the Brookfield village hall, 8820 Brookfield Ave.