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Politics & Government

Village Budget Holds Job Cuts, Tax Relief for Property Owners

The library will tap into its reserve fund to provide a 25% abatement.

The and the have come to an agreement on how to relieve property tax owners with an abatement, by agreeing to

between the two boards concluded last night as village trustees agreed to use funds from the library's larger-than-anticipated budget reserves to cover the abatement, rather than dipping into village funds, as has been the case the last two years.

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This is all part of paying annual the debt service on the . In the first three of the repayment plan, the village pledged abatements first of 75%, then 50% and now 25% to compete for residents struggling under the rough economy.

The levy discussion and approval was one aspect of a $52,209,327 projected budget for the village that eliminates 18 full-time positions (including two layoffs) and puts pay freezes on senior staff.  The number of village employees has dwindled from 354 in 2005 to 269 in this budget. Overall, residents who pay a total property tax bill of $10,000 annually should anticipate a $32 increase.

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“Everybody is working together to put a microscope to our operations and thinking of ways to deliver services,” said Village President Kerry Cummings.  “What is being done here in Glenview and what can be achieved is really fantastic for our residents to maintain a level of services as well as keeping a real eye on the taxpayer dollar.”

The main question heading into the evening was which path the village board would take in terms of the library having more money in its reserve fund than expected and how to levy property owners appropriately.

The village board decided to take almost a half million dollars from its 2012 Operating Fund and will use that toward the Library’s debt service. Even with this reduction, the library will still maintain 40% of its balance in case of unexpected expenses.

This option was not the first choice of the library board who instead preferred to see the village provide an abatement this year and the library the next year, but the village board moved that it would be better for the library to provide the abatement since they were in better financial position to do so.

Library officials were not thrilled, but they accepted the position of the board.

“All government is a compromise,” said Library Board President M. David Johnson. You can’t have infinite justice because there is only a finite amount of time and money. In this case our preference was for two abatements, the village’s stated preference was for them to simply reduce our levy and we came to a reasonable compromise.”

No library services will be affected by the abatement put in place, according to library officials.

“Having the library use monies that were collected for the library to serve as an abatement for the 2012 debt service levy is something I support,” Cummings said.

Still Trustee Paul Detlefs added a bit of caution about using abatements on a regular basis. “We need to recognize abatements are not free,” he said. “The money doesn’t grow on trees, it comes from the taxpayers.”

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