Mayfield Village Sets Budget for 2011

Although income tax collections are rising, Mayfield Village officials took a cautious approach to the 2011 budget passed by council this week.

Mayor Bruce Rinker said village officials starting scaling back on spending a few years ago when the economy started to sour.

"There was a consensus back in 2007 that things were kind of slipping," he said. "Progressive (Insurance) tends to skew how people look at the health of our finances. We started trimming back on expenditures."

General fund expenses for 2011 were set at $14.4 million, with overall expenses at $22.5 million. Revenues are expected to be $14.7 million for the general fund and $22.9 million overall.

Income taxes make up the bulk of the village's revenues and were budgeted at $12.5 million for 2011. Last year, the village received $10.8 million in income taxes – about $1.3 million more than in 2009. Even without the 0.5 percent income tax rate increase that became effective in July 2010, the village still would had been up $354,734 in income taxes.

The village plans to spend about $2.3 million on capital improvements this year, with $1 million of that set aside for road repairs in the Aintree subdivision. Other improvements include a new roof and attic insulation at the Civic Center ($175,000), the village's share of renovations at Wiley Park ($230,000, with the remaining 80 percent of costs paid by a grant) and $323,000 in equipment purchases.

Rinker said the village had made a lot of improvement in a 15-year period and officials decided not to undertake any large-scale projects for a few years.

"Instead of going for home runs, we're going for bunts and stolen bases," he said. "It slows down the tempo a little bit, but it's no less of an improvement."

The village has also adopted an accelerated schedule for paying down debt, which was $14.9 million at the end of 2010. That is scheduled to decrease to $13.2 million at the end of 2011 and go down to $7 million at the end of 2015.