MP gets early report on revenue, expenditures for new budget

By Bob Balgemann
REPORTER
Village officials have taken the first step in preparing another new budget. This one will be for the 2017-18 fiscal year, which begins May 1.
Village Administrator Tim Savage and Human Resources, Accounting Manager Michelle Johannsen presented preliminary revenue and expenditure information to the village board after its Feb. 21 regular meeting.
In this round, trustees were asked to communicate about “broad themes” they would like staff to address, as well as new initiatives to be considered.
First up was economic trends, which Administrator Savage said were based on what was going on locally, regionally and state wide.
Federal tax reform could have local impacts, he said, though they remain unknown at this time. While Illinois has sustained employment, forecasts are weak because there is no state budget.
Overall, he and Manager Johannsen anticipated more of the same as during the 2016-17 fiscal year, which will end April 30. No downward trends are anticipated.
In addition, interest rates are increasing, which they believe will impact inflation to a small degree.
Main income sources
Shared state revenue and sales tax make up 76 percent of the budget’s income.
State shared revenue is income tax and local use taxes, with the village typically relying on Illinois Municipal League (IML) estimates.
There is uncertainty in projecting income tax revenue this year because the Illinois Department of Revenue is implementing a new accounting system and making procedural changes.
So IML recommends using conservative estimates this year.
Income tax revenue this year is averaging a reduction of 13-14 percent.
But the village budgeted conservatively, meaning income should be

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