The village of Northbrook increased its annual budget by 11% to help cover some $27 million set aside for a new fleet maintenance garage and fire headquarters.
The Village Board voted unanimously on April 8 to approve $163 million in expenditures, up $16.5 million from last year’s budget of $146.5 million, according to Village Manager Cara Pavlicek.
The $16.5 million increase is largely the result of funds budgeted for the new Public Works Fleet Maintenance Garage and a new Fire Station 11, along with preliminary engineering costs for a new police station and fire station headquarters, Pavlicek said in a 14-page report to the board.
“In addition, there are various infrastructure projects related to bicycle/pedestrian improvements, streetscape, and asphalt/concrete streets which require incrementally greater appropriations for (the coming fiscal year),” she said.
The 2025-26 fiscal year runs from May 1, 2025 through April 30 of next year. The $27 million in costs for capital projects is offset by a reduction of $11.9 million in water fund expenses, Pavlicek said.
The budget numbers outlined by Pavlicek exclude expenses covered by interfund transfers, she said.
“Interfund transfers are excluded from this total because these interfund transfers out are also shown as revenue in a corresponding fund as an interfund transfer in,” Pavlicek said.
In other words, the interfund transfers automatically offset each other and do not represent actual increases or decreases in the overall budget.
Trustee Robert Israel, chairman of the board’s Administrative and Finance Committee, said the budget was prepared by Pavlicek and Northbrook staff, based on the requests of department heads.
“Department directors are best able to project their upcoming needs, while the village manager and department directors are best able to recognize and work within realistic budget constraints,” Israel said.
Israel said highlights of the 2025-26 budget include:
- Continued progress on the development of replacement facilities for the fire headquarters, fleet maintenance garage and police station. “We have purchased sites for two of the buildings,” he said. “The board has reviewed schematic designs for the fire station and fleet maintenance buildings, and is very happy with the progress.”
- Implementation of a water meter replacement program.
- The addition of six firefighters and one information technology systems engineer to respond to a 29% increase in emergency calls to the Fire Department and “significant malicious internal activity” against the village’s municipal infrastructure.
“This is all being done with a proposed minimum increase (in revenue) to the village, even while placing a priority on increased funding for the police and fire pensions above the legally required contribution to pay down liability sooner than required by Illinois law,” Israel said.
The budget contains a $5.1 million surplus in revenue, according to the budget ordinance approved by the board.
Since 1994, Northbrook has maintained a financial reserve policy that requires maintaining reserve revenue of at least 40% of annual actual operating revenues, Pavlicek said.
If the reserves rise above that 40% threshold, the Village Board may appropriate such surpluses for various expenses, including capital projects and retiring debt, she said.
For the most recently audited fiscal year, a surplus of $5.7 million was deemed available for appropriation to other uses, Pavlicek said.
Of those funds, $4 million was transferred to the facility capital projects fund, $1 million to the stormwater fund, and $700,000 for facility repairs or safer, ergonomic furniture, she said.
