Revenues are on a slight upswing, after having dropped over $1 million since 2008. Sales tax, income tax, and utility taxes have all dropped in the last couple of years. In addition to this, the State of Illinois and Cook County have delayed reimbursement of these taxes to the village. In fact, in 2008 and 2009, the Village waited more than an additional 3 months for its fall installment of property tax revenue from the county...an amount over $3 million each year! This required the village to take out a line of credit to make up for this delay. The line of credit was paid off and closed each of those two years, and currently holds a balance of ZERO dollars. VIP also claims the village "borrowed" another $6 million. Actually in 2007, $6 million of bonds were issued for the street work that has been done in the last few years. This is being paid off with the 1% sales increase the residents approved in 2007, with much of this sales tax being paid by out-of-town visitors to the Brookfield Zoo. VIP now wants to get rid of this voter approved sales tax...how will VIP pay off the street bonds? The VIP spin is financially dangerous.

There has also been a huge impact on employee pension fund balances due to the negative national economy. Required pension contributions for Brookfield’s fire and police personnel have gone from $560,328 in 2005 to over $2 million this year, accounting for nearly 15% of the entire $14 million operating budget of the village! Of the $6 million the Village brings in for property taxes, more than $2 million goes towards pensions! This is not something that can be avoided.

The Brookfield Board, along with administrative staff, has made many necessary changes in order to deal with these conditions. The recently passed balanced budget has general operating expenses nearly $1 million less than the budget passed in 2005. When you combine this fact with the amount that pension contributions have gone up, Brookfield is operating more efficiently with $2.5 million LESS than it was just 6 years ago under the VIP administration!

Staff has been reduced by more than 20 positions since that time, with decreases in every department, including management. This has accounted for nearly a 15% reduction in total staffing of the Village. In fact, the village manager's office, that had 5 full time positions in 2005 under VIP, has now been operating with only 2 1/2 full time positions. There have been wage freezes for all employees and mandatory unpaid days off for management. Certain expenditures have been delayed. Even during these tough times, Brookfield has been able to secure over $11 million in grant money to continue work on capital improvement projects. Additionally, the PEP village Board created the first ever financial reserve fund with required yearly funding and strict rules for withdrawing from the fund. In just 2 short years, this important safety net has grown to over $400,000.