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Budget review: consultant says village can likely avoid a near‑term referendum with policy tweaks
Summary
A detailed fiscal review presented by volunteer/consultant Scott showed payroll drives most expense growth, the village holds roughly $2.7M in accumulated surpluses and a $1.9M infrastructure reserve, and recommended setting formal inflator standards (CPI‑W), integrating referendum guidance into financial policy, and continuing conservative budgeting practices to defer a referendum until at least 2028.
Volunteer consultant Scott presented a multi‑year budget analysis and recommended changes to budget methodology and policy to provide more predictable long‑range financing. He said payroll drives roughly 75% of the village's expenditures and that the village has accumulated about $2.7 million in net operating surpluses and an infrastructure reserve near $1.9 million that can buffer near‑term shortfalls.
Scott walked trustees through a parametric projection model using conservative inflators (proposal: CPI‑W for payroll increases and 2% for non‑payroll operating expenses) and a program/pricing approach to separate price inflation from programmatic changes. "Bottom line up front, we definitely probably won't need a referendum until November 2028 if we do nothing right now," Scott said, adding that modest policy changes could extend that horizon to 2030. He noted uncertainties (primarily health‑care cost inflation) but recommended folding referendum guidance into the infrastructure reserve policy so voters and staff have clearer expectations.
Trustees discussed presentation format, potential standing packet slides to monitor trends and whether programmatic decisions (new positions, capital projects) should be more explicitly documented. Scott suggested staff could adopt standard inflators and a program/pricing format to make year‑to‑year variance easier to interpret. The board thanked Scott and asked staff to continue refining the model and present a public version of the plan and slides.
