District 117 board members held a special meeting on Wednesday to review the tentative 2016 fiscal year budget.
Statistics provided by Chief Financial Officer Jamie Hadjan show the 2015 budget with no deficit from last year. She says the 2016 budget that has been proposed shares a lot of similarities to the previous budget.
“When we are working on the September budget, our goal is to be very conservative. We go low on our revenues, high on our expenses and hope to meet somewhere in the middle.”
District 117’s beginning fund balance showed an operating fund of more than $18 million. When you compare the fiscal year 2016 revenue budget of just over $31 million to the 2016 expenditures budget of just under $34 million, the ending fund balance comes to $15,412,000.
Hadjan says some contingencies were placed into the budget, in case emergency funds are needed in the district.
Superintendent Steve Ptacek says the tentative budget is an executive approach to being fiscally conservative with the taxpayer money.
“At the end of the year, hopefully our fund balance remains at the level it currently is at or maybe even increases. We want to be able to use some of the fund balance, if needed, to be able to add into our capital development projects. We have renovations to our two current buildings and maybe more buildings moving forward.”
District 117 plans to dedicate $7.2 million towards capital projects in the 2016 budget.
While the tentative budget reports an overall deficit of $2.7 million, Hadjan reminded board members that this is all in preparation for the possibility of funding issues at the state level.
District 117 is scheduled to receive state-aid at 92 percent, but that could change at any time. The tentative budget is based on 79 percent funding from the state.
The 2016 budget also shows Capitalized Equipment and building improvements at $1.2 million for 17 projects.
The final budget must be confirmed in the next 30 days by board members and will run through June 30, 2016. To see the complete budget, click here.