One trustee called the budget the Manteno Board of Trustees passed Monday a “working budget.”

Manteno trustees unanimously passed its fiscal 2027 budget on Monday and the document did not include the property tax rebate.

That $9,123,925 budget still has a deficit, though it has been trimmed slightly, but it’s still $1.6 million in the red. Although the property tax rebate, which has been offered the past four years, was not included in the final budget, Trustee Mike Barry didn’t take the rebate off the table.

“I think we’re moving forward in the right direction,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of good conversations going on. I think this week we had a pretty interesting week, and we’re moving forward.

“And like I said, that budget is a working budget, so it can be amended. It can be changed at any time. Just because we approved it tonight, it still can be amended and changed at any time.”

If the board eventually OKs the property tax rebate for the village’s portion of Manteno homeowner’s tax bill, it will add approximately $1.2 million to the deficit.

Included in the fiscal 2027 budget is the paying of residents’ garbage fees at the cost of about $780,000.

Trustee Joel Gesky said in the Finance Committee meeting held just before the board meeting that the board can’t commit to giving the property tax rebate and paying for the garbage fees in perpetuity.

“We have to answer some concerns and questions first before we can make those rash decisions,” he said.

The village will end fiscal 2026 on April 30 with a beginning balance of $5.7 million, which is largely the remaining money from the $21-million sale in 2017 of the wastewater treatment plant to Aqua Illinois.

The biggest expense of fiscal 2027 is public safety at $4,449,150, followed by administration at $2,004,375. Public safety includes all police expenses, and administration includes all wages for village personnel. Public works is third with $2,038,350.

Revenues for the fiscal 2027 budget are driven by property tax $2.1 million, sales tax at $1.8 million, and state income tax of $1.6 million.

During the committee meeting, Barry, who is the Finance Committee chairman, said he went through the budget and racked his brain for several days.

“Honestly, there’s nothing huge we can cut out of this budget,” he said. “... With this budget, it’s the cost of doing business. Are there small amounts of money we can shave here and there? Yes, but it’s not going to bring us down to a flat budget.”

Trustees agree that there’s no way they can keep all the residents happy.

“We’re trying to trim as much fat as possible,” CJ Boudreau said.

Barry knows the board can’t wait too long on whether to go ahead with the rebate and noted that it was added in May of the past year.

“It’s definitely something that I don’t want to see us have to give that away,” he said. “Because of everything that’s going on within the village right now, a lot of people depend on the tax rebate. And the thing is, I’m not going to talk about what happened in the past, but going forward, I think that’s something that I like to see,” the rebate kept in place.

He added that if the village is not able to do the property tax rebate, he would like to give them plenty of notice in advance.

“Some people might think it’s not a big deal,” Barry said. “I just want to be transparent there.”

Without the property tax rebate, the village will have a little more than $4 million in the general fund at the end of the fiscal 27 budget.

Village Administrator Chris LaRocque said the board can’t wait too long to make the decision.

“They can do it anytime, but in order to facilitate it, the staff would need to know probably sometime in May,” he said. “... We’ve got to put out applications. We have to get those applications in and vet them up. It takes months to do this program. If they started to do this in October, there’s no way we would get it done.”