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Village approves FY2026–27 budget as amended, using unassigned fund balance to close gap
Summary
Trustees approved Ordinance 26-30 (FY2026–27 municipal budget) as amended after line‑by‑line changes that increased some revenue estimates and cut certain staffing hours; the board agreed to use about $172,017 of unassigned fund balance to balance the year.
The Village of Hampton Hills board voted April 29 to adopt its annual municipal budget for fiscal year 2026–27 (Ordinance 26-30) after a lengthy line‑by‑line review and several mid‑meeting adjustments.
Russ, the village finance representative on the call, said the latest draft added roughly $100,000 in interest income and a $15,000 uptick in sales-tax projections, which reduced a previously reported $423,000 general‑fund deficit in an earlier draft. Trustees then negotiated several changes: raising the police fines projection to $70,000, restoring a larger miscellaneous revenue target, authorizing the Cassell payroll module while deferring community-development and business‑license modules, and reducing a budgeted part‑time payroll/benefits position from 19 to 11 hours per week in the budget assumptions.
Those adjustments, Russ explained, left a remaining planned use of unassigned fund balance of approximately $172,017 to balance the year. Board members discussed longer‑term measures to address the structural gap, including a potential property-tax levy to support the police pension and performing a sensitivity analysis with Lauterbach & Amon and the pension board before seeking voter or tax action.
Trustees formally moved to approve the budget "as amended" at the meeting and completed a roll call vote; the motion carried. The board recorded the approvals and directed staff to prepare any follow‑up budget amendments and to return to the trustees with further detail in May or June if additional adjustments are needed.
The meeting record shows trustees also agreed to continue discussing staffing and the division of responsibilities between village employees and an outside finance firm as those changes are implemented. The board instructed staff to return with memos and recommended numbers at the next special meeting.
Ordinance 26-30 was approved as amended at the April 29 special meeting; trustees set follow-up steps to refine long-term budget responses to the village’s structural revenue shortfall.
