Saying the timing was not right, Brookfield trustees agreed Monday night that there would be no property tax referendum on the February 2010 ballot, but left open the possibility of a tax vote next November.
Not one member of the village board, including those who broadly support the idea of a tax referendum to raise revenues, expressed support for pushing through a question for the February primary election. With a Nov. 30 deadline looming to get such a question on the ballot, the board felt it didn’t have time to adequately make its case to the public.
In any case, board members believed such a question would have little chance of being approved by voters.
“It’s irrelevant to put it up,” said Village President Michael Garvey. “I don’t think it’d pass. I don’t think this issue is ready to be out there at this point, because we don’t know what the options are before us.”
Garvey said that if the time comes to put such a property tax question on the ballot, the board would clearly point out what the costs would be, whether it was successful or not.
“This board will not engage in idle threats,” Garvey said. “Either we’ll get revenue or there are cuts that will be need to made.”
Five of Brookfield’s six trustees came to more or less the same conclusion, but agreed that the village’s revenues needed to be addressed.
“At some point we need to come to voters and say we need more money,” said Trustee C.P. Hall. “If we do it prematurely, we’re not serving the public. But if we do it too late, there will be some interim costs that will cost you more in the long run than if you did it on time.”
Noting the village’s estimate that 82 percent of Brookfield’s total expenditures go toward salaries and benefits, Hall said, “Eighty-two percent is too high for personnel costs. We need money to buy fuel for police cars and not just patrolmen, fuel for fire trucks and not just for firefighters.”
Monday night’s decision to hold off on a tax question came during a general discussion of the village’s 2010 budget, which was unveiled to the public for the first time.
It’s a budget that predicts that revenues will outpace expenditures by $19,789 in the village’s general operating fund. Village Manager Riccardo Ginex said that the budget assumes a zero percent increase in salaries for all village employees in 2010 but also no more layoffs.
Also on Monday night, Ginex announced that the village had come to terms with two of its five union bargaining units. That gave him hope that the line might be held on wages.
Brookfield’s 13 public works employees and seven clerical staffers, who are all represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), have agreed to two-year contracts that call for no pay increases. In addition, public works employees won’t get step increases during the next two years, either.
In return, the village has promised no more layoffs. If layoffs are made, the union can reopen negotiations on salaries, Ginex said.
“I think they realize the village is facing difficult times and truly understand the nature of these difficult economic times,” Ginex said.
Whether the rest of Brookfield’s union employees will fall into line on the issue of salaries is being negotiated. The village will have its second negotiating session with firefighters on Nov. 23 and will have its first meeting with police officers on Nov. 24. The village’s police dispatchers have yet to meet with village negotiators on a new contract.
Village officials are predicting the village will have just under $800,000 in the general operating fund, which pays for day-to-day expenses, by Dec. 31.
In addition, Assistant Village Manager Keith Sbiral said the village will deposit $200,000 this year into a new cash reserve fund that will be created and protected from use by the board for general operations.
The rainy-day fund will eventually be the village’s reserve to help Brookfield weather times when cash flow is a problem. For example, the village could have such a fund to loan money to the general fund to pay bills when property tax payments from Cook County are late, which has often been the case in recent years.
The village board would not be able to tap into the special reserve without passing a resolution to do so.
“We’ve made a commitment to build a reserve,” Sbiral said. “We’ll come with a policy in December for the board to create a fund where money can’t be spent without board action.
“A sound reserve policy is the solution.”
Sbiral said that the goal is to build a reserve of $3 million in the next five to six years. That would mean the village needs to set aside roughly $500,000 per year in coming years for that purpose.
In addition to the $200,000 in 2009, the board planned on a $300,000 transfer to that fund in 2010. That amount is expected to be bolstered by another $140,000, which was slated to be used for engineering services for the second phase of the Grand Boulevard reconstruction.
On Monday, the board agreed to defer that expense until 2011 and defer the start of construction until early 2012. If the village decides to move forward with the project in 2012, it will have to come up with $1.6 million for construction.
“It gives us another year to put money away and figure out how to do that,” Ginex said.
The draft 2010 budget included over $1.2 million in capital expenditures, but that amount will be lowered due to actions Monday. In addition to deferring Grand Boulevard engineering, the board decided to lease three new police cars instead of seven. After not replacing police vehicles in 2008 and 2009, Brookfield will replace four in 2010. Three will be leased and the fourth will be purchased with a grant announced Monday night.