In his inaugural speech on January 12th, Governor Bruce Rauner stated that, “Each person here today and all those throughout the state will be called upon to share in the sacrifice,” in reference to fixing our current state financial woes. On February 18th, we learned of his proposal for Long Grove (as well as every other municipality in Illinois) to share in the sacrifice. This proposal, if passed into the next Illinois budget by both the Senate and House would take effect on July 1st, 2015. And it would cut in half the state income taxes that Springfield hands down to its municipalities. To Long Grove, this means a loss of about $400,000, out of an operating budget of less than $3 million. Long Grove has never charged a property tax, and this state income revenue is our second-largest source of funding, behind only sales tax.

At our Village Board meeting last Tuesday, we discussed this proposal and the effects that it may have on our next fiscal budget, which is set to be approved in April. The Village Board will be adopting a resolution at our next meeting opposing the proposed reduction of distributive revenues by the State of Illinois. I have written letters to Governor Rauner and our state representatives expressing our opposition to this loss of revenue. In Long Grove, we have been forced to make tough decisions to keep our budget balanced every year, and now it seems we are asked to dig a little deeper into the reserves for the sake of the State of Illinois. I hope this is one sacrifice we will not have to make.