The Peoria Heights Village Board got its first look at the fiscal year 2022 budget this week, along with a status report on the current year’s finances. “Encouraging” may be the best word for it, given the circumstances of the last year.
The proposed operations budget is balanced and anticipates spending and revenues at right about $4.1 million.
The budget blueprint for the coming year arrives on the heels of an FYI 2021 budget with a projected surplus topping $600,000. That is remarkable given the Village’s dependence on sales tax revenues, in a year when the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered many local businesses for periods of time. That result is due, in part, to constant budget monitoring and fiscal discipline, but in fact revenues have significantly outperformed expectations for this year.
All in all, expenditures in 2022 look to go up about 2.7 percent – fundamentally a cost-of-living increase – over the current year’s actual spending. The biggest increase is in the fire department, owing to the first-ever employment of a paid fire chief and weekday on-call firefighter. The largest part of the budget, about 47 percent, continues to be the police department, followed by general administration at 18 percent and the street department at 14 percent.
Over the last three years, the Village has made significant progress in building up its fund balances, a cushion against future financial crises. Indeed, cash on hand is expected to top $1.9 million in 2022. That’s about six months of annual spending, which puts the Heights in the “best practices” category.
In a definite assist to that bottom line, the Village will see a sizeable increase in grant funding from other governmental bodies, rising from about 1 percent to 5 percent of the total budget.
Meanwhile, the Village intends to begin squirreling money away for some major upcoming capital projects, specifically a couple of large water mains. The whole idea is to move forward on some critical capital needs without accumulating debt.
“We have to start working on the Village infrastructure,” said Trustee Brandon Wisenburg, adding that what’s appropriate for homeowners in stressing the importance of maintaining their private properties also holds for the Village in terms of investing in public property.
“Small improvements add up to big improvements, especially sidewalks and streets and parks,” he said.
Other trustees agreed, arguing for an ongoing capital budget that puts curb and sidewalk and streetlight upkeep on a regular schedule.
“Because of being good fiscal stewards, we are getting ourselves into a position where we can start talking about ... a sidewalk program or doing more improvements to the water infrastructure,” said Mayor Michael Phelan. “As policymakers, we need to identify some bigger capital projects that are four to five years out.
“We’ll get there and we’re on our way,” said the mayor, who along with trustees had high praise for those who crafted the budget, specifically Village Administrator Dustin Sutton and Village Bookkeeper and Clerk Stephanie Turner.
The budget blueprint unveiled this past week is a draft, which means changes can yet be made. A final Village Board vote will come later this spring. The 2022 fiscal year begins on May 1.