The Village of Forest Park will be ending this fiscal year with an $11 million deficit, not an unfamiliar pattern for the village, where expenditures have exceeded revenue for over a decade.
Although all department costs have remained under budget for the past several years, Village Administrator Rachell Entler said Forest Park continues overspending when it comes to paying employees overtime in short-staffed departments, funding capital projects and emergency infrastructure fixes.
“Times are changing, and we are at a point where you can only do more with less so much and so well. We have to start having serious conversations of ‘are we actually doing it well? Or are we overtaxing the people we have here?’” Entler said in a nod to the nearly dozen audience members at the village’s second budget-related meeting April 22.
This year, Entler changed the budget-preparation process. In the past, the village held one meeting, where department directors presented itemized costs and submitted them for review to Letitia Olmsted, the village’s finance director. This year, Entler organized two meetings before commissioners’ final approval to offer a collaborative, big-picture discussion about the state of Forest Park’s finances — all in an effort to address continual deficit spending.
Though 2024 fiscal year numbers won’t be finalized until early summer, according to Entler, this isn’t the first that Forest Park has spent from a deficit. Deficit spending occurs when the village accesses its general fund as a form of revenue when spending surpasses income. The general fund consists of money the village receives from property, state and utility taxes, license and permit fees, plus grants.
At the first meeting to discuss the budget, commissioners and department directors brainstormed the most expensive items they wanted to buy and potential revenue streams. In the April 22 meeting, these suggestions were sorted by priority and cost:
- Build a new Jackson Boulevard water reservoir for around $10 million. This is the highest-priority, most expensive item.
- Upgrade water meters, a cost of $4.5 million.
- Purchase a new fire engine, estimated by Fire Chief Phil Chiappetta to cost up to $1 million and have a three-year wait time.
- Replace the public works department’s fleet, including a new forestry truck.
- Assess government buildings’ capital needs and develop a plan for them. The issues include: aging carpets and floors, deteriorating prisoner cells at the Forest Park Police Department, and adding new daycare furniture at the Howard Mohr Community Center.
- Fix the public works department’s masonry and leaking roof, estimated at $300,000, and renovate the bunk room at the fire department, a cost of $120,000.
Other needs include replacing the police department’s squad car fleet, purchasing a secure email system to upload FOIA and finance documents, and writing a new comprehensive plan. The last plan was written in 2014 and details the village’s goals over the next decade or so, including strategies and areas of upcoming developments discussed by elected officials, businesses and residents.
It is not yet clear how the village will pay for the projects. Financial paths include:
- Applying for grants.
- Exploring home rule.
- Instilling a food and beverage tax.
- Increasing parking meter rates and requiring permits for on-street parking.
- Amending the village’s leaf removal program, because collecting leaves for free in the fall costs the village $80,000 a year.
- Revisiting video gaming.
Home rule permits municipalities to create local solutions to local problems. Those with at least 25,000 residents automatically have it. But because Forest Park’s population is about 14,000, voters would have to pass a referendum to obtain it. Local control includes things such as taxing Airbnbs or establishing a local transfer or sales tax.
As for food-and-beverage taxes, Forest Park is one of the few area municipalities without one.
“I was really surprised to see that we are one of the only communities here that did not have a places of eating tax in place,” Entler said, adding that most surrounding villages have a 1% tax, and some have 2%. As a non-home rule community, Entler estimates this tax could generate $500,000 to $1 million.
Video gaming, however, is among the more contentious suggestions. At the April 22 meeting, Commissioners Maria Maxham, Michelle Melin-Rogovin and Jessica Voogd voted to drop exploring that option. Commissioner Ryan Nero wasn’t in attendance. Because video gaming is newer, and Forest Park is one of the few towns that has reversed it, Entler said the Illinois Gaming Board directed her to the state of Illinois to see whether the 2018 referendum overturning video gaming could be reversed.
“I have more people come to me with the question about gaming than any other single issue,” Maxham said. “What I’ve come to realize is there is no quick answer,” she added, “it would be cost and time prohibitive.”
The other two present commissioners agreed: “I’m here to represent the decision that was made by Forest Park voters,” Melin-Rogovin said.
“The people voted. We were elected to represent the people and we need to support their decision,” Voogd said.
Commissioners also praised the new budget structure.
“I want to thank our village administrator again for changing the process this year and not having just one, static meeting,” Maxham said at the April 22 village council meeting after the budget discussion. “This was really interactive with a lot of great ideas and open, honest discussion, which I think is really important to have.”
Though the final budget meeting hasn’t been scheduled yet, during it, the village council and staff will review each department’s draft budget for discussion and approval.
