I attended the village board meeting on Monday, April 20, 2009 and was pleasantly surprised to hear about ways that the village has decided to cut costs in their 2009-2010 budget.

1. No economic adjustment will be given to non-union employees this year (though from my understanding this will be reviewed in 6 months). Union employees received a 4.5% increase per their contract.
2. We have signed a contract for tree services, but the contract is for emergency removals only, there will be no parkway tree trimming this year.
3. A new janitorial company was hired.

Items 2 and 3 should save the village approximately $65,000 this year. No numbers were reported on item 1.

What I was upset to hear about was that they will be raising property taxes 18%. That 18% comes out to about $110 a year on a $250,000 home. I'm glad to see that the village isn't only about raising taxes, but also in cutting expenses, though I was hoping they would not raise taxes in these tough economic times.