Patch Election Q&A: Jeanne Felten on Question #1

The question:

Just about all the candidates so far have said Montgomery needs to raise more revenue. What are your specific ideas to accomplish this? And what are your ideas to reduce expenses? What, specifically, would you cut out of the current budget?

We are all painfully aware of the need to increase revenue, however with the current economic conditions that will continue to be a challenge for now. I would personally like nothing better than to see all of our vacant commercial properties filled and to see new construction in our far east and far west sides. The reality is that businesses are not expanding at this time. I have contacted several retail and restaurant entities myself to offer Montgomery as a possible area for expansion and have been told by all of them that they are not expanding right now. My hope is that as expansion picks up that Montgomery will be able to attract retail businesses and restaurants that are new to the area.

The good news is that our sales tax revenue continues to increase and we have already surpassed our expectations for this year. That indicates that consumers are spending and that’s a positive sign. We are also starting to see small increases in new residential construction. New residential construction has traditionally been a source of significant revenue for the village with the various fees charged to the developers. Hopefully the market will continue to improve and this can once again generate revenue for us. Our only other alternative to increase revenue is to increase taxes or implement other types of fees and I am not in favor of that at this time. We are all facing the various increases that keep getting thrown at us by other taxing bodies and frankly I feel it is getting way out of hand. I know I personally have had no salary increase for the past 2 years and I continue to be frustrated by the various tax increases that are being put on us as taxpayers.

In terms of budget cuts I feel we need to be very careful in considering these. Back in 2008-2009 when the economic downturn began we were proactive as a board in addressing some of the issues before they became major problems. We instituted our layoffs at that time and also cut significant expenses from our budget over the next couple years. I am very proud of the fact that we chose to be proactive at that time rather than wait and take a “reactive “ approach. At this point there is little room left for cuts without having a direct impact on our residents and the services we provide. In the near future we are going to be faced with the challenge of identifying funding sources for various capital improvement projects. This will include items such as major road resurfacing and purchasing additional vehicles for use by Public Works and the Police Department. In the past developer fees were used to fund many of these items but with the current state of the housing market those funds have dried up. Vehicles will need to be replaced or significant money will be needed to continue to maintain our current fleet. All of the departments within the village are already being asked to do more with less. The board made the difficult decision to require village staff to contribute to the cost of their health insurance beginning this year. Our public works union worked with us and waived their salary increases last year and other non-bargaining units also received no increases. Montgomery is lucky to have the exceptional staff members that we have and who have continued to be committed to making Montgomery a great community.

As a board we need to continue to review each and every expense that is presented to us to determine whether it is truly necessary before approval. The reality is that until the economy recovers all municipalities are going to continue to face these same issues.