The Dolton Village Board approved a budget Monday, although it’s for the fiscal year that just ended, and trustees are working on a new spending plan for the budget year that began May 1.
“This is a catch-up budget as we go into the next year,” Mayor Jason House said.
He said officials have begun preparations for the fiscal 2026 budget, which will outline spending through the end of April 2026. House said that a public hearing will be scheduled and the board would have a new budget in place by the end of July.
The village needed to adopt a budget as it works to get back in the good graces of the state comptroller’s office.
The village is undergoing state-mandated audits of past financial records after village officials were unable to find a company willing to take on the job. Those audits are expected to be wrapped up in the next couple of months.
During former Mayor Tiffany Henyard’s term in office, the village was delinquent in filing annual financial reports, such as budgets, and audits, with the state comptroller’s office.
Comptroller Susana Mendoza last year said her office notified Henyard and the village of the delinquency for two years, but said the mayor’s office “refused to communicate with us or address the problem.”
Until the delinquent reports and audits are filed, the comptroller is holding back payments to Dolton collected under its offset program. The program collects debts owed to local governments via deductions from state employee wages, tax refunds or lottery winnings.
For Dolton, that amounts to more than $100,000 a year, according to the comptroller.
In April, the Village Board voted to seek proposals from outside firms to do a separate audit mainly focusing on spending in the village’s Police, Water and Housing departments.
According to the budget approved Monday, revenues for fiscal year 2025, which just ended, were $24.2 million, compared with revenue of $24.6 million a year earlier.
Total expenses for fiscal 2025 were $23.6 million. In fiscal 2024, spending was $30 million despite the board only approving spending of just under $25 million.
Police Department spending for fiscal 2025 was $8 million versus spending in the prior budget year of $10 million.
Overtime spending for police was $1.7 million in fiscal 2024 and came in at $1.2 million in fiscal 2025.
Trustees had complained that Henyard’s use of village police for a personal security detail drove up overtime costs for the department.
Spending for administration, including salaries for elected officials and other administrative staff, was $6.6 million in fiscal 2025 compared with $9.2 million in the prior budget year.
Payouts for court settlements were $254,000 for fiscal 2025 compared with $216,000 in the 2024 budget year.
For fiscal 2023, money spent to settle court cases was $103,000.
For legal services, last year’s spending was $732,000 compared with $393,000 in fiscal 2024 of $393,000.
Public Works spending last year was $2.1 million compared with $3.3 million in fiscal 2024.
