Meet Your Candidates: Village Trustee Hopeful Dan Kaplan

Dan Kaplan hopes that if successful in pursuing a position as a Wilmette's Board of Trustee, he can work closely to develop the Village's . With three children attending New Trier High School, Kaplan told Patch he is deeply rooted in the community.

"I have seen practices that work well in other communities and understand the operations of local government in a way that make me highly qualified to work with other board members in establishing priorities, initiating new policies and exercising effective fiscal oversight," he said.

Board members serve four-year terms. Three seats are open this year, and six candidates are running—Kaplan, Mike G. Bailey, Mike Basil, Bob Bielinski, Doug Rathe and Julie Wolf.

Check out what Kaplan has to say about pensions and the village's budget below.

How would you assess the state of the village’s budget?

Dan Kaplan: Tight, and at risk for continued weakness in the local economy and the State’s finances. The Village includes in its annual budget financial projections through 2013. Projected revenue growth is modest and the Village anticipates break-even operations through 2013.  

The Village share of state income taxes is projected to be $2.1 million annually from 2011 through 2013. As Illinois struggles to improve its finances, we need to be concerned that local government’s share of state income taxes may be reduced – as is currently happening in other states. Borders decision to close its Edens Plaza store reminds us that the economy remains weak. Maintaining services when revenue growth is flat but expenses continue to increase will be the major challenge for the next Village Board.    

If expenses need to be reduced, exactly what would you cut?

Kaplan: My past experience with local government has taught me that department managers are capable of identifying specific expense and service reductions for elected officials to consider. Elected officials must then evaluate which service reductions to implement. This is the process that I would follow as a trustee.

Trustees do have a say in establishing the guidelines for contract negotiations.  Direct salary expense comprises almost half of the Village’s annual expenses.  As I noted to the League of Women Voters, salary increases from 2008 to 2010 were almost 6 percent above the rate of inflation and cost the Village an additional $700,000 in wages. Going forward, routine salary increases for future contracts need to be limited to the actual rate of inflation.

The Village has an opportunity to lower its electricity costs at the end of its current contract in April 2012. Prices in our current contract are almost 50 percent higher than average daily prices lat year. By locking in prices for three years, the Village paid a substantial premium for a price guarantee. Shorter-term contracts that utilize the Village’s back-up generators at the water treatment plant should allow the Village to reduce its energy costs. 

If more revenue needs to be raised, exactly what would you propose?

Kaplan: Property taxes are the Village’s largest source of revenue. The Village’s financial projections show property tax increases of $815,000 in 2012 and $917,000 in 2013. No one likes to increase property taxes, but at least portions of the increase will be offset by lower federal and state taxes for most Wilmette homeowners and businesses.

Most local governments transfer a portion of their water and sewer utility revenues to support general government operations. A restructuring of the Village’s sewer utility debt would allow also us to start such transfers – but this would result in a reduced level of funding for sewer utility capital improvements. This is not a simple tradeoff, but one that the Board should study as part of its multi-year financial plan.          

What, if anything, does the village need to do to adequately fund police and fire pensions?

Kaplan: In 1999, the Village had fully funded its pension obligations to its police and firefighters. A decade later, the pension fund shortfall was $33 million and cost the Village $2 million in additional contributions in 2009. Poor investment returns, underfunding by the Village ($868,000 in 2008 and 2009 plus weak actuarial assumptions that the Village did not correct until 2007) and yes, additional benefits voted by the Illinois legislature in 2004, all contributed to the shortfall. We need to do better.

Going forward, the Village needs to develop a financial plan for reducing our pension obligations. New state legislation could help, but the focus of trustees should be on policies over which the Village Board has some control: compensation and pension fund contributions. Salary increases above the rate of inflation increase the cost of pensions. The Village needs to reverse this practice and use tax dollars that would have gone to pay current salaries to pay down our $33 million pension fund shortfall. 

What ideas do you have to make the Master Plan a reality?  How will you push forward economic development of the village center?

First steps in implementing the Master Plan (both of which are discussed in the document) are to revise the Village’s zoning ordinance (already in process) and to market the Plan to developers. 

It is important that development in the Village proceed in a fiscally responsible way. The Master Plan presents only a broad outline of the investments that the Village will need to make to promote development. Until we receive proposals from developers, we have no way of assessing what additional property and sales taxes will be realized. Financial commitments and developer proposals must be closely scrutinized and negotiated fairly. This will be a critical task for the next Board and one in which I expect to be closely engaged.  

If the state of Illinois succeeds in re-establishing the capital bill, would you support video gaming in this village?

Kaplan: Not initially. Let’s wait a year, observe the experience in other communities and make a decision at that time.   

How would you assess the public services the village offers residents, including police, fire, trash pickup, snow removal, responsiveness of village hall, etc.?  What needs to be improved?  Are residents getting adequate value for their tax dollar?

Kaplan: Overall, the quality of our municipal services is quite high, as we saw with the February snow storm. That said, making tax dollars go further is an on-going imperative for local government, especially in our current weak economic recovery. 

What else would you like voters to know about your positions on issues or point of view?

Kaplan: I have lived in Wilmette since 1984. My children are New Trier classes of 2013, 2015 and 2018, which means we will be here a while longer. My younger son two years ago also persuaded me to buy a small sailboat which we keep on Gilson Beach.  Another long-term commitment. There is no place like Wilmette.