Homewood and Flossmoor, along with other Illinois municipalities, were spared a substantial revenue cut Thursday when the General Assembly passed a quick-fix deal designed to plug a $1.6 million hole in the state budget.
But Thursday’s deal only covers state expenses through the end of June; Illinois lawmakers begin work next month on the budget for the 2016 fiscal year, which starts in July. Gov. Bruce Rauner has called for a 50 percent cut in the shared municipal revenues – they are distributed through the Local Government Distributive Fund (LGDF) – and his proposal remains very much on the table.
If LGDF revenues are cut in half, Homewood this year would lose about $900,000. Flossmoor would lose nearly $470,000, about 5 percent of the village’s general fund, which covers police, fire, public works and many other day-to-day expenses.
Flossmoor officials are already expecting a $450,000 deficit in the 2016 municipal budget. Two weeks ago, Mayor Paul Braun, looking ahead to a possible cut in LGDF funds, directed village staff members to investigate what budget cuts could be made to head off a bigger deficit than originally predicted.
Rauner’s LGDF proposal, which came during his budget message to the General Assembly in February, touched off a firestorm of dissent from municipal officials around the state. The revenues, which are generated by state income taxes, have been shared with municipalities for decades.
Legislators this week plugged the $1.6 million budget hole by cutting money from a number of sources – including parks, education and roads – and a 2.26 percent cut across the board will cover the remainder of the shortfall. Last spring the General Assembly passed a state budget that did not allocate enough money for expenses, especially when a temporary income tax hike expired at the end of 2014.
The quick-fix deal provides funds to keep a state child-care program that needed another $300 million to keep going through June, as well as other state programs that were expected to run out of money.