After several months of hammering out minor details, the Burr Ridge Village Board of Trustees passed its Fiscal Year 2025 budget Monday.
The budget will result in a $5,564,966 million fund balance at the end of the fiscal year which is down about $200,000 from the FY 2024 budget fund balance, due to the lack of grocery tax revenue.
The expenses are projected to total $12,194,874 while revenue is projected to be just above that at $12,197,079. The budget year begins May 1 and will run through April 2025.
The biggest impact on the budget could be a $200,000 revenue shortfall as state leaders in Springfield continue to debate the fate of a grocery tax Gov. J.B. Pritzker would like to end, though when that shortfall will occur and what (if anything) will replace it isn’t yet known.
That tax is a 1 % tax on all groceries that goes back to the community, and while Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso has agreed with the governor that the tax is regressive — meaning the flat tax hits harder families with less income — village leaders will be left to fill the shortfall unless the state can offset the tax payments from some other source. For example, the Illinois Municipal League urges the state to give back more income tax revenue to local villages to offset the loss.
Until the state budget is hammered out, a process usually completed in late May, the actual economic impact in Burr Ridge isn’t known. However, the Village’s FY 2025 budget assumes nothing will replace the grocery tax. As it stands, if the grocery tax does disappear, it’s not even clear when that might happen. Payments could cease later this year or Jan. 1, depending on when the ta ends.
Either way, doing away with the tax has proven to be a popular idea among Democrats and Republicans in Springfield, so policy experts assume it will end.
“There’s some talk whether it’ll be Jan. 1,” Grasso said. “Obviously the governor wouldn’t have brought it up if he didn’t have the votes, but he is getting pushback. Bottom line, it is a regressive tax.”
Regardless, Burr Ridge Administrator Evan Walter said, as usual, the village will revisit the budget throughout the fiscal year to make tweaks regardless of the tax.
“We will certainly continue budget discussions throughout the year,” Walter said.
For that matter, Monday night’s meeting also saw the board approve a budget amendment reflecting a change in income as well as expenses. These sorts of changes are routine.
Ultimately, the FY 2025 budget passed 5 to 0, though Trustee Joe Snyder was absent from the meeting.
Jesse Wright is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
