According to Mr Shields, although I do not see an agenda there. Their material is on the cover page of the village website today. The Final Report indicates that their favored solution to our financial problems is, once again, a TIF.
7pm, Town Hall, Room 22 (across from Auditorium.)
If anyone would report on the happenings of this meeting, I would greatly appreciate it.
TIF? I thought we saw that movie already.
It was called ZULU.
army.wav
Chard:"The army doesn't like more then one disaster in a day."
Bromhead:"It looks bad in the newspapers and upsets civilians at their breakfast."
http://www.moviesoundclips.net/sound.php?id=20
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...from the LTFC final report...
The committee considered a lengthy list of possible tools but recommends the following: Initiated/controlled by the Village
—¢ Consider exploration of alternative plans and locations of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts
—¢ A revolving loan program to promote economic development, which could be funded through the surplus fund balance beyond 35%.
—¢ A Village staff specialist (part-time or full-time) dedicated to promote economic development within the Village
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III. Recommendations for Addressing the Village's Structural Deficit and Capital Improvement Requirements The following recommendations are ranked in the order of the committee's “consensus— and composite priorities. Each member ranked each of the six main options from 6 (highest) to 1 (lowest). This method provides a composite committee scoring or weighted average. The highest two ranked recommendations received scores of 55 and 50 respectively out of a possible 72 points with 12 of 13 committee members voting as of the date of this draft report. The lowest two recommendations received a score of 22 out of 72 maximum points (12 is the lowest score possible). See Appendix 2 for details of rankings. A. Increase Current Village Fees, Use One-Time Budget Surpluses for Capital Improvements, and Sell Village Property, and Contract or Share Services with Other Communities as Follows: (recommended by committee consensus on July 17 and not included in rankings) 1. Increase the annual vehicle registration fee from $45 to $65 and improve compliance that will raise an estimated $120,000 annually 2. Regularly evaluate building permit, zoning, and inspection fees; 3. Consider selling the Northgate property 4. The preferred use of any unrestricted fund balance in excess of 35% should be for capital improvement projects in lieu of long-term subsidies of the operating budget. 5. Continuously review Village opportunities for sharing services with other nearby communities either through contracting or shared governance. Potential services include: —¢ Dispatch services (currently under Village consideration) —¢ Police services —¢ Fire services —¢ Public works services —¢ Park and recreation services
No analysis was conducted to derive estimates of the likely fiscal effects both in the short and long run; a detailed analysis and discussions would be required before determining whether financially and operationally feasible. In general, such arrangements are usually cost-stabilizing rather than cost-saving and are more viable for services requiring significant capital investments (versus personnel). 6. Consider borrowing for capital improvement projects (would require a referendum for specific projects). Should the Village wish to not have uncertainty regarding its capacity to fund needed capital improvements, it can borrow to fund them. Table 2 below illustrates the annual debt service payments associated with alternative amounts borrowed. Such debt service financed with property taxes must be approved via referendum and is not subject to the State tax cap. Borrowing does not close the Village's structural operating budget funding gap —“ it has to be repaid at an overall cost higher than pay-as-you-go financing. On the other hand, use of bonding ensures that future users assist in paying for the facilities financed in prior years. The Committee further suggests that the Village Board articulate a long-term debt policy for funding capital projects. Table 2: Annual level payment debt service for new issue bonds @ 5% Amount Borrowed 10 Year Term 20 Year Term $3 million $388,500 $240,700 $5 million $647,500 $401,200 $10 million $1,295,000 $802,000 B. Use Economic Development Tools to Increase the Size of the Village's Property Tax and Sales Tax Base, that will in the Long Run Slow Down or Stop the Shift from Commercial to Residential Properties (61 of maximum 78 points —“ ranked first) The committee considered a lengthy list of possible tools but recommends the following: Initiated/controlled by the Village —¢ Consider exploration of alternative plans and locations of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts —¢ A revolving loan program to promote economic development, which could be funded through the surplus fund balance beyond 35%. —¢ A Village staff specialist (part-time or full-time) dedicated to promote economic development within the Village Initiated/controlled by a developer —¢ Historic Preservation Tax Credits (federal) —¢ Cook County Class L Tax Abatement Historic Preservation Tax Credits and Class L Tax abatement are preservation tools that may create Economic activity. Prepared by Virchow, Krause & Company, LLP
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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Paul Newman: "Who are those guys?"
When the vote was taken TIF was not defined as one of the strategies. Mike Gorman raised this last night. Thus this voting was skewed. As Mwilliam Casey, Ron Ray-Gun's CIA chief used to say about intelligence: "Put a little English on it." This report and its findings is eerily similar to what we heard before. The "voters" were hand picked and voted predictably. Bravo for Mike and Holly who voted against accepting this thing as some kind of Holy Writ. It was roughly parallel to the TOD study voting for priorities that DLK conducted, except this cost us a lot more. This season, as last, it seems all the "smart" people will be wearing consultants as protective coloration.
I don't understand. The Final Report said Choice 1 was economic developments tools, to wit, a TIF.
It is disappointing that there is still no will to cut the budget, which is not the same as cutting services to residences. It is called increased productivity. I saw in that paperwork no look at the salaries and benefits of employees, and little contemplating their number. All of us are familiar with these realities in the private sector. I saw an item 104K in the 2007 budget for "professional training." Now, that is one of the first things to go in the private sector when there is a budget crunch. There is also no such thing in the private sector as pensions for non-union employees except for the golden parachuters, vested after ten years, as I am told we have here. I don't know because, as I said, I can find no such information on the village website. It may be buried in the 277 page budget, but I could not find it.
It is disappointing that people who again put forward an idea like TIF, and trustees who make statements like there should be little or no restraints on the desires of developers, have developed no will to seek common ground but give signs instead of determination to forge ahead again with divisive ideas. In this market though, the Village coffers could build an entire building and turn it over to a private concern, and they still wouldn't be able to sell units.
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