As Brookfield ponders ways to boost revenues without resorting – yet, anyway – to a property tax increase, one of the solutions officials have hit upon is hiking ambulance fees.

In the big scheme of things, this is a relatively low-impact way to come up with some money, since residents’ insurance companies pay for the service. What insurance doesn’t cover, the village doesn’t pursue, at least with respect to residents and communities with which Brookfield has mutual-aid agreements.

Fire Chief Patrick Lenzi has proposed hiking fees across the board for ambulance services, a move that, in theory, would bring in another $377,000 annually.

However, the village appears to be shooting itself in the foot a bit on this one, since the person whose job it was to pursue ambulance billing on a daily basis is no longer employed by the department. That job was a victim of layoffs this spring, and the result has been lower collections in the past five months.

According to figures provided by Finance Director Doug Cooper late last week, the village’s ambulance fee revenues are off by $10,000 per month since the layoff.

Over the course of the year, that’s $120,000 in revenue.

With the department’s clerical employee gone, Lenzi has been the one gathering ambulance billing information and delivering it, personally, to the collection agency hired by the village.

It would appear, in addition to not being the best use of the chief’s time, that by laying off an employee, the village is actually costing itself money. Surely, that clerical worker was not making $120,000 in salary and benefits.

If nothing else, the village ought to consider hiring someone (perhaps that same person) on a part-time basis to do ambulance billing. If the village is going to go after revenues by raising fees, it at least ought to have the manpower available to send out the bills on a timely basis.

Timing is everything

With the decision to forego a referendum in the spring of 2010, the Brookfield village board has set up a tricky scenario for the future. While the board would have had a tough time convincing voters to approve a tax hike in February, from a political point of view that’s probably the best election to even give it a whirl.

The next election in November 2010 is the Illinois gubernatorial election and Cook County board election. With the electorate in a foul mood over state and county politics and fearful of more tax increases, the chances of a tax question succeeding in November seem slim.

Add to that an impending referendum coming from Riverside-Brookfield High School. We’re not sure when that will hit, but it’s going to happen in the next couple of years. Imagine that pairing on a ballot.

And in the spring of 2011, there’s a village trustee election. If the anti-incumbent trend seen at the national level is any indication, good luck with that.

Brookfield is in for a rough ride and officials ought not to pin hopes on taxpayers bailing them out.