Village of Lawrence approves budget

The Village of Lawrence approved its $6.220 million budget for 2014-15 by a 4-0 vote on April 3. Deputy Mayor C. Simon Felder was absent from the Thursday meeting.
Village residents will be paying taxes at the same rate — $71.60 per $100 of assessed value — that they have for the past three years.
Mayor Martin Oliner noted that “our obligations went down” meaning that expenses for employee benefits have decreased as staff reductions were made. More than $50,000 is expected to be saved in retirement payments, while a savings of more than $120,000 is anticipated for medical insurance.
However, residents continue grieving their property taxes and receiving reductions from the county assessor translating into less money for Lawrence for the third consecutive year. That money will be made up by using $1.74 million from the village’s fund balance.
Prior to the vote Trustee Michael Fragin said the overall “budget numbers could be lower” and Lawrence cannot keep using money from the reserves to cover shortfalls in the budget. “We cannot sustain this and keep depleting that fund balance,” Fragin said. “With the tax cap that will be a challenge given that our budget is not balanced.”