HANKS SHORT $457,000 IN UNBALANCED BUDGET

by Joseph Wiszowaty
SAUK VILLAGE | Finance Director Mohan Roa delivered the bad news Tuesday night following questions from Trustee Derrick Burgess.  The Village is short $457,000 to cover bond payments due and now Mayor David Hanks' administration is calling for borrowing from other funds, funds which are dedicated to other village expenses, in order to make the payments.  

Trustee Derrick Burgess said that this should have been foreseen and he called this out during the budget process in July and action should have been taken then.  Burgess presented the Village Board with a 21 page analysis during the budget hearing which Hanks scheduled a special meeting of the Village Board so he could dissect Burgess' analysis in minutia.  Hanks accused Burgess of offering "zero solutions" in his budget analysis.  "There are five other Trustees and none of them have offered solutions or analysis of their own, yet he (Hanks) didn't call out the rest of his board.  That's politics." Burgess said.  "I'm but one vote and he's got his five votes locked up on the Village Board" Burgess said.  "I offered an analysis of his budget proposal in July, nobody but me asked any questions of any substance during that time" Burgess said.

The Board will now hold a "special meeting" Tuesday, November 4th in order to play the musical shell game of "borrowing" special revenue funds to pay the bond payments due for the Village Hall, 9-1-1 equipment and Fire Equipment purchased. 

Burgess also called to the Board's attention to the fact that the Village will now exceed the budgeted amount in overtime.  Burgess brought this to the boards attention during the Budget hearings in July stating then this was budgeted way too thinly by Hanks.  None the less, the Village Board approved what Hanks called a "balanced budget" Burgess was the only NO vote!

Hanks sarcastically and arrogantly shot back that the Village Board has always had to borrow $500,000 from the water fund in order to pay its bills each year. 

Following the meeting Burgess pointed out that Hanks already had taken $300,000 from the water fund, borrowed some $29,600 from the water and CN noise mitigation fund to cover grass mowing and now is going to borrower $457,000 more.  "That's not $500,000, and we still have about 3 months of bills and payroll" Burgess said following the meeting.  "Just because it was past practice doesn't make it right.  Look at the mess we've been in because of past practice" Burgess said. 

"I want to see a plan from this administration on November 4th with respect to this money" Burgess said.  "They can't say they didn't see this coming.  I did, but I thought it would be in November.  I guess it came a few days early" Burgess said.

Burgess said that there was a $1.6 million deficit in the General Fund going into this fiscal year which began May 1st, and he predicts that will swell to over $2.5 million or more.  Hanks' budget called for no increase in the General Fund deficit, in fact he called for it to be reduced during his review of Burgess budget analysis.