With Budget Vote Tuesday, See How the Village of Northbrook Spends Its Money

After signing off on cost-cutting measures last year, Northbrook village trustees will consider a $36 million draft budget with a surplus of $527,748 at Tuesday’s meeting.

Want to see where that money will be spent? Click this link to view an interactive graphic. Click on each color in the pie chart to see line items in the spending for that department. 

“We’ve reorganized, downsized and reallocated resources where appropriate in order to right-size the organization to the changing needs of the village,” Finance Director Jeff Rowitz noted in a letter to trustees submitted along with the draft budget. That included consolidating the village’s economic development and planning services departments last year and limiting the replacement of capital equipment to only those items deemed critical, among other measures.   

The budget trustees will vote on Tuesday night assumes that the village will continue offering all services at their current levels without raising taxes and has the lowest operating expenses in four years, according to Rowitz. The village will use reserves to offset the increasing cost of fire and police pension funds, rather than raising property taxes.

The current budget also does not include salary increases for village employees, Rowitz notes, although Northbrook’s collective bargaining agreements, which affect more than 70 percent of the city’s workforce, will be up for renegotiation April 30.

On the revenue side, the village plans to raise water rates by 20 percent effective May 1.  According to Rowitz, the village considered raising rates in May 2010 based on an October 2008 study. However, the village delayed the rate increase last year by transferring $1.2 million from excess reserves to the water fund. 

To see exactly how the village spends its money, follow this link for an interactive graphic that combines a breakdown of how much the village spends on each department (such as police, fire and public works) as well as how money within each department is spent. 

Police and fire are the city’s two biggest expenditures, with $12,786,700 allocated for police department and $10,218,495 going to the fire department. As for revenues, the village’s main source is sales tax, property taxes and water use and sewer use fees. Rowitz said revenues are higher than expected due to a small uptick in the sales tax at the end of the fiscal year.