Frankfort Village Board Adopts $62 Million Spending Plan

At its July 10 meeting, the Frankfort Village Board passed the village’s annual appropriations ordinance for the fiscal year 2023/2024 that ends on April 30 next year.

In a memo, Village Finance Director Jenni Booth stated in April, the village board approved the FY 2024 (05/01/2023-04/30/2024) annual budget. This document is the internal working document village staff use on a day-to-day basis for their departmental operations. The FY 2024 General Fund operating budget was balanced with an operating budgeted surplus in the amount of $3,506,100.

The sewer and water operating budget was balanced, as well, with a budgeted surplus in the amount of $6,386,200.

The village anticipates transferring these operating surpluses, plus additional surpluses if funds are available, to the Capital Development Funds.

Before the end of the first quarter of each fiscal year (July 31) the village must adopt an appropriation ordinance. The appropriation ordinance specifies the maximum amount that legally can be spent. It is an inflated budget document, which considers unexpected or emergency situations that may arise. The total proposed appropriation for this fiscal year (05/01/2023-04/30/2024) is $62,132,900, which is $695,200 higher than last year’s appropriation of $61,437,700. This year’s total appropriation of $62,132,900 is $5,399,300 (9.52 percent) above the total budgeted amount of $56,733,600.

The General Fund will receive the largest portion of the appropriations package ($33,951,600), which includes $13,532,900 in capital funding. This includes money for all village services including police.

The sewer and water department is the second largest appropriations recipient ($22,017,900) covering anticipated operating and capital expenditures.

Frankfort Finance Director Jenni Booth concluded her memo saying, the general methodology used to create the appropriated amounts is as follows:

• First the approved budget document was used as a starting point.

• Then, most individual expense line items were increased by five percent. (Salaries for police pension fund members need to be adequately identified for pension calculation purposes and therefore these salaries were not increased by five percent.)

• Lastly, an additional five percent contingency line item was added to each fund in case emergency situations arise or the timing of a capital project is different than originally projected. Current revenues and cash balances on hand are sufficient to cover all appropriated expenses.