As we wind down the year, it's time again to ramp up the Budget discussions for 2011. This past week, we held the first Budget Workshop and focused on the subsidy for the four nonprofit organizations that receive money from the Village - Youthnet, Community Coalition on Race, SOPAC and Main Street.
We began with an overview of the outlook for 2011 and 2012, in general. The "good" news is that if we kept everything flat, we would "only" have a 3.5% increase in 2011 (if we find another $240k in revenue or cuts) and a 7.6% increase in 2012. (Once again, the biggest drivers being healthcare and pension increases). However, this does not account for having ANY capital expenditures (street paving, significant building improvements, Fire Equipment etc) which obviously is not realistic. So, as a result, we once again are faced with the big challenge of weighing our options and determining if there are additional "revenue enhancements" (ok...tax increases) or spending cuts that can be found.
With that framing the discussion, we reviewed the budgets of the 4 nonprofits in intimate detail and their respective financial requests:
- Youthnet - requested $15k; accepted by the Board with the suggestion that Youthnet should work to increase its fundraising from the community
- Community Coalition on Race - requested $22.5; after a lengthy discussion, concerns were raised about the expenses for the organization, such as payroll for 3 employees, rent expenses and $200/month in telecommunications expenses. In addition, as discussed previously, the CCRs involvement in divisive and political issues continues to be a concern of the BOT. No decision on funding was reached.
- SOPAC - requested $337,000, an increase from the $229,500 that was provided in 2010. Extensive discussion was held and, in the end, the BOT agreed to maintain the same level of support as 2010 ($229,500) for now, with the option to revise it closer to SOPAC's requested amount once we had better clarity on the rest of the budget.
- Main Street - requested $50k; accepted by the Board but it was noted that the additional $12k provided last year for Downtown After Sundown will be raised by the Citizens Public Safety Committee for 2011.
In addition, we agreed to ensure there were contractual agreements between the Village and each of these entities to ensure that they are performing to service levels specified and meeting goals specified by the Village.
We obviously still have a LONG way to go for the upcoming Budget with many more Workshops to come.
