Good Not Great News On Mokena Budget: The Gist

The One-Sentence Summary

On Monday night, the Mokena Village Board approved the budget for Fiscal Year 2012, which runs from the middle of this year to the middle of next.

First, The Important Bit

Budget story, so the first thing you care about won't be expenditures, revenue streams, fiscal quarters or whether it's in the red, in the black or in the mauve with purple polka dots.

You want to know what's going to cost you and your family more this year than last year. So let's get that out of the way.

• Refuse rates to haul off garbage will go up by 35 to 40 cents a month. That starts in August.
• In October, commuters will see a 25-cents-per-day hike to the parking fee by the Metra station.
• The connection fee for water and sewer is also going up this year, from $10,337 to $10,699, but that's not because of this budget. That's because of yearly increases worked in every year since 2008.

Now, Some Big Numbers

But a budget is not made by 25-cent fees alone (which is too bad, because then I could be done with the story and off to bed by now). Let's look at the big numbers.

$19,835,620 – That's the money from every tax, fine, permit, grant, service charge and the all-important category of "other" that the village expects to make in the next year. These are the revenues.

$1,730,270 – That's how much bigger they expect next year's revenues to be than this year's. You could also call the increase 9.56 percent, if you're feeling so inclined. This increase in revenues is what's known as really good news.

$22,317,788 – That's the money from every paycheck, road project, employee retirement pay-in and once again those magnificent "other" costs the village expects to spend in the next year. These are the expenditures.

$695,355 – That's how much bigger the expenditures are expected to be next year than this. That's 3.22 percent. (Note: $227,000 of that is because of a calendar quirk next year that means there will be 27 pay periods in FY2012 instead of the usual 26. It happens every 12 years.)

Now you've probably noticed a problem: There's more money going out than coming in. But Village Administrator John Downs isn't worried, which begs the question ...

Why Isn't Village Administrator John Downs Worried?

"The reason I'm not worried about it is most of those negatives are in our capital funds," Downs said.

That means that aside from a handful of one-time-only capital costs, the budget's OK. And once those bills are paid, those costs won't come again for a long time.

The budget includes $568,650 in vehicles, computers, radio re-branding and other equipment and maintenance they've been putting off on replacing, but feel can't wait any longer.

There's about $117,000 in improvements to commuter parking.

There's $1.85 million for a future expansion to the regional wastewater treatment plant.

It has about $280,000 to complete a buffering project along with constructing a new salt storage facility.

And more. The village is moving some money around, namely $171,000 from a fund started in 1994 to set up sewer and water along Wolf Road (developers put up the money for the actual sewers, so the village's cash has just been sitting there).

And they're digging into savings. They plan to start FY2012 with $28,957,598 in the bank and end up with $26,475,430. Considering the financial crisis Mokena was in last year, the village is hoping this year's budget – made without any tax or major fee increases – shows the beginning of the end for Mokena's money troubles.

"Although the sun is not ascending as fast as we would like, it is definitely going up instead of going down," Downs said.

Now Let's Watch the Whole Thing on Video

Click here and scroll down to and click on "Public Hearings." It's item 7.