Antioch looking for ways to trim next year's budget

Antioch residents may be swiping at more mosquitoes than usual this summer as village officials look for ways to trim more than a half-million dollars from next year's budget.

Canceling the $14,000 contract with the mosquito abatement company is just one of the options trustees are considering to fill the expected $638,000 shortfall in the 2011 fiscal year.

"We have to toe the line on costs. We have no other choice," said Antioch Village Administrator Jim Keim at Wednesday night's meeting. "We have a revenue issue. Our revenues are going down. I've instructed the department heads to make the most out of what you have."

Antioch's fiscal year starts May 1, and village leaders want to finalize the budget sometime in April. Next year's budget is just over $10 million.

Officials have been forced to cut the equivalent of 20 full-time positions in the last two years, and cut nearly $500,000 in spending this year. The failure of Neumann Homes, the stalled Antioch Market Place shopping center project and a decline in revenue from building permits, sales and property taxes have put the town in a financial squeeze, officials said.

Keim presented a number of options to close the gap.

A renegotiated employee insurance policy could save $100,000; choosing to fund employee pensions at this year's rate instead of the annual increase could save another $78,000. Canceling contracts for cleaning services and mosquito abatement, among others, would save an additional $60,000.

The rest, nearly $400,000, would come from the town's reserve fund, Keim said.

The cash in the reserve fund is coming from the recently imposed village utility tax, expected to generate $1 million annually.

Trustee George Sakas said there are unknowns in exactly how much the proposed cuts will save and expressed concern about dipping too deeply into the reserve fund.

"These are theoretical savings," he said. "If we take the worse case scenario, we've come very close tonight to wiping out the utility tax," he said."

Keim defended the proposals. "I don't want to be the guy who bankrupts the village," Keim said.

Sakas said he wasn't being accusatory but wanted to be clear on the implications of the ideas.

"I'm not pointing fingers, I'm just trying to get my mind around this," Sakas said. "The worst case scenario is that we have to use the utility tax this year to get past this. I'm OK with that versus bankrupting the village. But we need to know what we're doing."

In other matters, the village is in line to get up to $3 million in reduced rate bonds made available through the federal stimulus package. Trustees will decide soon whether to borrow the money.

With a 2.5 to 3 annual percentage rate, it would cost about $200,000 annually for a 20-year payback.

The majority of the board favored the idea. The cash could be used for a number of high-priority projects, including a new pool at Williams Park. That decision will be made in the coming weeks.