Tax rate continues to be a work in progress
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Monday, April 25, 2026



Much has been said about the proposed village budget for the upcoming fiscal year. We, the undersigned, feel confident in the job we were elected to do, and we therefore wish to explain our position on the matter.

One of our goals was to attempt to maintain the levels of service, (fire, DPW and police) our community has experienced throughout the years. The process we set forth was to analyze where we were at, and prioritize what our community expressed, as its main concern. The budget we crafted not only maintains services, but creates a present and future fund for repairing our streets, and maintaining our equipment.

First, let us reiterate that the proposed tax rate announced at the last board meeting April 12 was a working number. It was merely a snapshot of where we happened to be at a particular point in the budget process. If we had simply approved everything the department heads were requesting, the tax rate would have increased more than 37 percent.

And so it happened that the mayor chose to turn this budget over to us. By April 12, we managed to reduce that increase by half. And since then, we have made further cuts to ensure the lowest tax rate possible, and we are still working.

We take our responsibility as stewards of the taxpayer’s money very seriously. That is why we are committed to solving problems and planning for the future.

One major problem has been increasingly evident over the past several years: the poor condition of so many of our streets. We strongly defend a budget that gives proper attention to the pressing need for road repairs. We are dedicating a portion of your tax dollars into a newly-created street repair fund that will help us begin to address this long-neglected problem. This fund will not be raided to pay for other things.

Street repairs should be a top priority for our village. This fact was overwhelming confirmed by our fellow citizens during the recent election season. It is time we begin to solve these kinds of problems and stop ignoring them.

We recommend all interested residents, to come to the budget meeting at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Senior Citizens’ Center.



Timothy D. Cooper

Clayton G. Ehrenreich III

Robert J. Rice

Adam M. Tabelski
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