Highwood’s finance committee is scraping for nickels and dimes wherever it can find them as it reviews the city’s preliminary 2011 budget.

In a March 9 meeting, lasting late into the night, committee members went line item by line item, trying to come up with ways to bump up city revenues and inquired why various funds were not coming in.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do and do it fast,” said City Treasurer Trish Lenzini. “We started talking about some ways that we might be able to increase some of the revenues that we have the authority to increase under home rule that we haven’t explored.”

The committee is considering recommendations to the council for raising local taxes such as utilities and dry cleaning, and increasing fines and penalties for items such as car city stickers.

Some of Highwood’s fees and fines are lower than neighboring communities, said City Manager Greg Jackson, and the city needs to find alternate sources of revenue.

He said sales tax, home rule sales tax and state income tax are down—which together account for more than half of the city’s total revenues.

Lenzini said she didn’t think the city met its overall revenue expectations for the 2009-10 fiscal year. The city was not available to comment on the degree of the deficit.

Much of Highwood’s economy is dependent upon its restaurants and bars.

“Our biggest bang is without people working, it affects our state income tax, and without people having money to spend…[they] don’t have disposable income to affect our sales tax,” Jackson said.

In addition, Jackson and Lenzini are wringing their hands over Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget address March 10, in which he called for a $300 million reduction in the amount of income tax that the state will share with local governments.

In 2009 for instance, Highwood received $504,704 in state income tax and in 2010 is expecting a similar amount. For 2011, the city is budgeting for $450,000—a significant fraction of the $4, 386, 523 million budget proposed as of the March 9 meeting.

“If [Quinn] pulls our income tax—ouch,” Lenzini said. “It’s not insurmountable.”

The first deadline to pass the state budget is May 31 and the fiscal year begins July 1, said Kelly Kraft, a spokeswoman for Quinn's budget office.

In general, Jackson called the proposed budget figure conservative, but Lenzini disagreed. She said she would rather see a number such as $4 million flat.

“I think [$] 4.3 [million] is pie in the sky,” Lenzini said. “I mean, if we’re through January and we only have $3.5 million dollars in revenues, are we really going to exceed that by another $800,000 in the next fiscal year when none of the economists that I listen to are predicting things are going to be better?”

The city has until April 30 to collect the year’s funds needed for the 2011 budget, which leaves about six weeks.

“I’d rather go in with my belt tight and come out the other end on the plus side,” Lenzini added. “If we can hang on and do it now, let’s see where we’re at next year. If we can carry over a surplus I will do a cartwheels down the street.”

The city right now does not have a reserve, Jackson said, but Mayor Charlie Pecaro put before the council about a month and a half ago the idea of setting aside 1 percent of all revenues.

The committee has not yet finished reviewing the preliminary budget. It plans to hold another meeting at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 20, during which it will discuss remaining areas such as parks and recreation as well as payroll.

The biggest hit may fall on city personnel, Jackson said.

“When you talk 70 percent of any budget, it’s personnel cost,” he said. “At some point adjustments need to be made. It could mean cuts.”

After the committee does its initial revue, they will present the budget to the committee of the whole and then it will go to the city council. Dates will be publicized.

—By Blair Chavis|Triblocal.com reporter