West Cook News

The Oak Park village board recently voted on the final approval of the village’s 2023 budget.

The village’s 2023 budget will begin on Jan. 1 and run through Dec. 31, 2023. The board brought it up for a vote at the Dec. 5 village board meeting with some final comments by board members and village staff. Trustee James Taglia spoke about some of his hesitations about the budget. He did praise the board’s goals on investments and capital improvement plans, as well as the flat levy proposed for the 2022 levy. However, he voiced his concerns about the large increase in general fund spending and a lack of expenditure reduction conversations. 

Some of the other trustees agreed with the concerns that Trustee Taglia had spoken to, with some hesitations over the lack of attempted savings. However, many trustees were very optimistic and proud of the budget that they had created, especially with a zero percent increase in the village tax levy, especially with the current inflation.

"So from my perspective, I'm happy to support it for this year, considering the overall picture, you know, but it still leaves a lot of concern in my mind about future years. And I'm willing to give it the next year to see how this really plays out and where we land up by the end of the budget discussions for next year to really see what path we take," Oak Park Board Trustee Ravi Parakkat said at the meeting. "But I would encourage everybody concerned, whether it is the community members, staff board colleagues, to really pay attention to a lot of the pieces that we've rejigged as part of this budget, because a small shift in some of those things could have an outsized impact in terms of our community's future. So I would just encourage everybody to pay attention to that. But otherwise, the budget has got a lot of positives and I would rather amplify that at this point and then let the jury be out later for the expense side of things."

Some of the other comments made about the budget included a concern over the lack of details that went into the ARPA funds meant for sustainability and their climate action plan. Trustees praised the work of the village staff in creating the budget and being able to confidently pass it and expect no deficit from it in the following years. The board passed the budget with a unanimous vote.