Village of
Westchester OCTOBER, 2021
From the Desk of President Frank Perry I’d like to start my monthly article off with some spectacular news!
pOLICE DEpaRTmENT
3
pUBLIC WORKS
4
fIRE DEpaRTmENT
5
LIBRaRY
7
SCHOOL DISTRICT
11
SENIORS
14
SCOUTS
20
Fiscal Year 2020 was the first year since Fiscal Year 2014 that we had an increase in the General Fund balance. For five years in a row, from Fiscal Year 2015 through Fiscal Year 2019, we had expenditures totaling more than revenues. Fiscal Year 2020 was a slight surplus, $134,000, and then this year, Fiscal Year 2021 had a large increase, $1Million. Fiscal Year in Review: Here’s a briefing on our FY 2021 yearend with the caveat that about 85% of the accrual entries have been recorded. Thus, final fund balances will change, but they should not be significant. • The Village’s General Fund should end the year with a fund balance INCREASE of between $1.1M and $1.320M after the statements are finalized. In February 2021 during our preparation for the FY2022 Budget, we projected an almost $1M surplus. The main drivers of this surplus are: 1.) Strong sales and State-shared revenues over the original budget of almost $765K; 2). Ambulance and photo enforcement fees $400K more than budgeted, although police fines were $110 under budget. The Village prepared its FY2021 Budget on a conservative basis for the last two years, and especially during the uncertainty of the economy during the pandemic. CARES ACT federal grant money of $285,000 has been received during the year through Cook County and was used for reimbursement of firstresponder and public safety personnel expenditures. The Village is expecting another $45K from a FEMA/IEMA grant for other COVID-19 related costs to be reimbursed.
• For expenditures, personnel costs such as salaries and employer-paid insurance came in under budget in all departments. Overall expenditures were monitored closely and capital items were held to necessary purchases. In summary, the IML (Illinois Municipal League) is projecting that the economy returns to pre-pandemic levels during FY 2022, but with a levelingoff or slowdown during the latter portion of calendar 2022. Although the increase in the General Fund’s balance is encouraging for FY2021, we must continue to be diligent to increase our reserves to comply with the Village’s Fund Balance policy and guard against another economic slowdown in these tenuous times. • The Utility Fund looks to experience an increase in fund balance of over $100K after depreciation expense of $500K is recorded. • The Motor Fuel Tax Fund recorded an increase in fund balance of over $600K. This is mostly due to Build Illinois grant money of $551K received during the year for to be used for streets and transportation-related purposes. • Property acquisition by the Village on Mannheim Rd. is the primary purchase activity in the Roosevelt Rd. TIF fund in FY2021. Although not drawn down yet, the Village has a loan secured with Republic Bank to cover the cost. Payback of the loan will be funded by sales of the Mannheim property for development. • Debt service on the Village’s 2013 and 2015 bond issues was almost $558K for the year and is funded by the NonHome Rule 1% sales taxes collected in the Capital Projects Fund. In FY 2022, the Village has a bond refunding opportunity due to a favorable interest rate environment, and is in the process of refunding its 2013 GO Bonds for a
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