Mount Pleasant Passes Budget; Two Trustees Dissent

After a lively discussion about whether or not to approve amendments that would have eliminated three positions, the Village Board voted 5-2 to approve the 2012 budget.

Trustee Jerry Garski to eliminate an accounts payable clerk, the community development coordintor, and the deputy director of planning. All measures failed.

Garski and Trustee Karen Albeck voted against the budget. For Albeck, she said the board should not have been surprised since she has long said she would vote against a budget that included a full time Administrator.

"I announced at one of the budget workshops that I would not be able to vote for a budget which contained funding for a full time administrator," she said via email. "So, my no vote has been known for some time now."

More, Albeck said she couldn't vote for a budget that required deep cuts from protective services while at the same time creating "a pot of undesignated funds."

"I believe it was especially unfair to require the , after they had already underspent their 2011 budget by over $100,000 at the request of the Board throughout the current year," she said in the same message. "Then, after mandating those cuts, the Board created a pot of undesignated funds which was more than double the amount of the ."

Garski feels the same way.

"We cut money out of our police and fire departments and then raised the levy and refinanced debt to create $744,000 for the capital fund," he said. "That just isn't right."

But Trustee Gary Feest said he voted for the budget because overall, the village has a good budget.

"It does what we need it to do," he said. "I did my talking and brought up my points during the budget work meetings. Opposing the budget with a 'no' budget at that point is more pomp and circumstance for election time."

As presented at the , the budget includes a mil rate increase; residents will pay $6.62 per $1,000 of assessed value up from $5.83 in 2011.