When Forest Park kicks off the new fiscal year on May 1, staff and commissioners host a series of budget meetings to discuss the village’s financial status from the last year and ideas for the upcoming fiscal year. The idea is to plan ahead of approving budget appropriations in July, when commissioners establish legal spending limits.
In its first budget meeting for the 2027 fiscal year on May 18, staff discussed potential options for new revenue streams and presented the data they had so far from the 2026 fiscal year.
Finance Director Letitia Olmsted said revenues in the village’s general fund were projected to be about $23 million and expenditures $27 million, leaving a projected $3.7 million deficit in the general fund for the end of the 2026 fiscal year. Olmsted said the village can transfer some money from the village’s water, VIP and tax funds so the deficit is closer to $2.2 million.
That’s slightly higher than the projected $2 million deficit in the general fund at the end of the last fiscal year. And it doesn’t include end balances for many of the village’s other funds, since last year the village projected a total $15 million deficit.
In the upcoming fiscal year, Village Administrator Rachell Entler said staff is concerned about cash flow, operating deficits as expenses continue to outpace revenue, plus a declining fund balance and reserves in special funds.
In looking for ways to reduce expenses, staff suggested reorganizing or streamlining internal services and a review of the village’s discretionary spending to see where costs can be saved.
“We don’t do a consistent job of making little changes in smaller time increments. We tend to make big changes over big time increments,” Entler said.
But even with cutting costs, the village still lacks a source of consistent additional revenue. At its budget meetings last year, staff discussed increasing the cost of business licenses and creating parking amnesty collection, where people can pay past parking tickets without accrued fees. The latter has brought in $25,000 as of January. The village also discussed and implemented last year booting cars that had a certain number of unpaid tickets. Entler said there’s still $2 million in uncollected parking fines.
New revenue streams
Staff has a few plans in place for increasing revenue in the future and are discussing multiple other options, including a tax on short-term rental properties, home rule status and a places of eating tax.
On June 1, the North Illinois Transit Authority Act will go into effect. One of the bill’s provisions reimburses Forest Park for costs associated with emergency response services at the end of CTA lines in the village. Staff has estimated the reimbursement to total nearly $1 million for the fire department alone. Forest Park will report its 2026 emergency response costs in January, making it unlikely the village will see a significant amount of money from NITA this fiscal year.
Village staff said they’re still working with lawyers to understand the legality of taxing short-term rental properties and placing restrictions on them like some residents have requested. Mayor Rory Hoskins said the village has to be careful that they don’t implement a regulation that takes away a rental property owner’s livelihood.
“We can regulate the use of Airbnbs, but we can’t regulate their existence,” Hoskins said. And the way the village code is written, short-term rental tax falls under a hotel tax, restricting the way the money can be spent.
“Any money that comes in through a short-term rental through hotel tax cannot go into the general fund,” Entler said. Rather, it needs to be used to fund tourism efforts in Forest Park. She added that preliminary research shows short-term rental fees don’t look like they’d be a huge new revenue generator for the village.
Staff also brought up pursuing home rule status again as a new form of revenue, though residents overwhelmingly voted it down over 20 years ago. Without home rule status, Forest Park’s annual tax levy increases are capped, and the village can’t pass specialized taxes without a voter referendum.
“Home rule doesn’t magically give us money. It allows us to implement more taxes to make more money, and the only way that villages like ours make money at all is mostly through taxes,” Commissioner Maria Maxham said.
Places of eating tax
The most likely new revenue source, and the one that had the most air-time at the budget meeting, was a places of eating tax. The 1-to-2% tax would be charged at establishments in Forest Park where prepared food is sold and seating is provided. With a 1% tax, officials estimate Forest Park could bring in $500,000 annually.
While Maxham vocalized her support for the idea, Hoskins and Commissioner Jessica Voogd said officials need to engage local businesses more to see what they think about the idea.
“To expect that we’ll get real buy-in from businesses affected by it is naive,” Maxham said. “It’s part of our job as elected officials to make the hard choices.” She added that the places of eating tax could be vital in working to repair the village’s financial situation.
“It’s really hard for me to look at any of our first responders and know that we’re having trouble funding your pensions, but we’re not doing everything we can to bring in the revenue we need to do that,” Maxham said. “I don’t think we can ignore one of the biggest sources of revenue that’s available to us right now.”
“I think it could be a great source of revenue for the village,” Hoskins said of the places of eating tax, adding that officials would need more info on how the tax would impact small business owners. “We can move forward with the places of eating tax, but we don’t have to solely rely on the places of eating tax.”
Voogd said she’s for the idea of a places of eating tax, but “it is our responsibility as a village to really educate folks and let them know what this looks like, and to sit down with our businesses and talk to them. … Let’s figure out how to do this in a way that our community’s on board.”
Five public commenters who own or work at restaurants in Forest Park spoke against the places of eating tax at the budget meeting.
Brad Wall, owner of Junction Diner, said, “We understand that this is a pass-through tax, but I, and many others, would be embarrassed to just pass it on and never pay it out, ultimately devaluing our business.” He urged the village council to “focus on growing taxable revenue, rather than increasing tax rates on current businesses, which can have the opposite effect.”
Marty Sorice, who operates multiple bars in town, also owns restaurants in other counties and says business is better where sales tax is 8% in DuPage than 12% in McCook.
“The 12% tax on a restaurant doing $150,000 per month is like a $36,000 a year extra payment,” Sorice said. “Also understand in the current economic environment, this 2% cannot be easily passed along.”
Anthony Crawford, general manager of O’Sullivan’s Public House, said customers already have a 10% sales tax at Forest Park restaurants, and a 2% places of eating tax is a 20% increase on taxes.
“Would you clutch your wallet a little bit if your property taxes went up 20%?” Crawford said. “Any time we’ve increased our prices, which we normally eat, we see a decrease in items sold. O’Sullivan’s has been lucky enough to maintain revenue growth, but we’ve been plateauing hard over the last year or two. And people think of us as one of the more successful small businesses.”
“I’m not hearing you guys talk about the long-term economic future of the village,” said Joseph Sullivan, owner of Duffy’s Tavern, to village staff and commissioners. He added that there are countless professional service businesses in town that don’t produce sales tax revenue, like gyms and beauty salons. “You guys have no idea how to get more people in town other than the dentist and the plastic surgeon.”
Donny Biggins, owner of Robert’s Westside said, “If a places of eating tax must be imposed on restaurants and bars and Forest Park, I ask that the tax rate start at 1%, not 2% and be revisited year after year. The cost of goods for restaurants continues to be on the rise, and with the price of gasoline continuing to go up, so does the price for every vendor delivering goods to the restaurants.”
Steve Glinke, head of the building department, said maybe there was room to negotiate with businesses, that the village could implement a 1% places of eating tax if they were allowed to stay open later on Friday and Saturday nights.
“I think one of the issues that was raised most consistently was getting back the 2 hours for the late-night players that were taken,” Glinke said. A tradeoff like that “will give them an opportunity to gain some of that money that might be affected by a 2% tax or 1.5% tax. I think that’s an opportunity that’s on the table.”
Wall said that surrounding towns that have this tax have more support from local businesses: “In the 13 years we’ve been here, we’ve seen revenue opportunities taken away from eating establishments through reduced hours, paid parking, gaming, and entertainment restrictions.”
“I think this is going to go through. I think you guys are going to do this,” Sullivan said. “I hope you involve us in some kind of partnership discussion about this. I think there is a quid pro quo aspect to this that we do need. We would like to see something in return.”
Underfunded pensions
Finance Director Letitia Olmsted said the village’s deficit in its general fund is directly related to the village’s additional contributions to its underfunded police and fire pensions. The village’s fire and police pension fund needs to be 90% funded by 2040, but are currently less than 40% funded.
During public comment at the budget meeting, Travis Myers, a firefighter, member of the pension board and president of Local 2753 Firefighters Union spoke about how overworked the Forest Park Fire Department is.
“In 2011, we responded to 2,953 calls. Last year, 4,742. Our staffing model hasn’t changed since 2004. We’re running 60% more calls with the same firefighters,” Myers said.
And that way of staffing can impact their already underfunded pensions.
“Here’s what keeps me up at night,” Myers said. “It’s 3 a.m., a paramedic’s been on shift since 7:45 yesterday morning, he’s been awake for nearly 20 hours, his ability to perform is compromised. Then a structure fire comes in, and we’re asking exhausted firefighters to save the lives when they haven’t had adequate rest. Your constituents deserve better. They deserve to know that, when their worst day comes, we’re at our best, not running on empty.
“On-duty injuries from exhaustion and stress aren’t just safety tissues, they’re a financial crisis,” Myers added. “Every disability claim for fatigue hits our pension fund. That’s a cost the village will carry for decades. We can prevent that now, or we can pay for it later when it’s much more expensive. This council is capable of bold action. I’m asking you to move fast on property sales, developer partnerships and revenue solutions that matter now, not years from now.”