Though Forest Park passed its most recent financial audit, officials say the village hasn’t shown an improvement in financial stability, sparking conversation about avenues of new revenue.
At a Feb. 9 council meeting, Lauterbach and Amen presented its annual audit of Forest Park’s 2025 finances. While the village passed, commissioners questioned just how serious its financial situation is.
The village’s general fund this year — or money from taxes, fees and grants that are used for daily operational costs — decreased by about $1.3 million, leaving $252,000 in the village’s fund balance. But in the village’s water fund, which covers the cost of running water across Forest Park every day, there was a $7.7 million increase for the 2025 fiscal year, or an ending net position of $39 million this year.
After Joe Laudont, a principal at Lauterbach and Amen, presented an overview of the village’s finances, Commissioner Maria Maxham asked about the village’s Moody’s Investors rating, a score based on a municipality’s audits. With the village’s current rating, it could be a credit risk.
Maxham also asked what it meant for the village’s financial standing to have a positive net position — the same question she emailed Finance Director Letitia Olmsted ahead of the meeting. With Olmsted’s permission, Maxham shared her response.
“I said, ‘Does this mean we should be optimistic?’” Maxham said. “And she said, ‘In my opinion, this does not show an improvement in financial stability.’”
Olmsted told Maxham that the village still needs to be financially cautious because its sources of revenue were largely one-time occurrences rather than long-term sources of money, because the village isn’t meeting its pension contributions, and has long-term debt on the horizon with projects like replacing its water reservoir.
Laudont agreed with Olmsted and said that, in the village’s general fund, there’s not a balance of unassigned or unrestricted funds, meaning if all revenue stopped, the village wouldn’t have any money to cover operating expenditures.
Maxham added that the audit report reveals that revenues in 2026 will not offset expenditures, which are budgeted to increase by half a percent.
“We’re still not looking at improvements in either revenues or decrease in expenses,” Maxham said.
New forms of revenue
In her commissioner’s comments at the end of the council meeting, Maxham emphasized the need for the village to increase its avenues of revenue — especially since property tax is the village’s biggest portion of revenue, but 80% has to go into funding village pensions, which have been underfunded by millions of dollars for decades.
The village has been actively discussing new forms of revenue for at least two years but hasn’t established anything that would supply a significant new cash flow.
As the village plans to soon have another open meeting to discuss its continual budget goals, Maxham asked commissioners to reconsider a tax on food and beverages at places of eating in Forest Park. Last August, commissioners tabled discussion about the restaurant tax after all four commenters at a public budget meeting said the tax would negatively impact restaurant owners in Forest Park.
According to Maxham, a 2% tax at restaurants and eateries in Forest Park could bring in $1 million of annual revenue for the village.
“I am nothing short of begging you guys,” Maxham said of establishing the places of eating tax during her commissioner’s comment at the Feb. 9 meeting. She asked commissioners to reach out to her or Olmsted about whether they’d entertain the new tax and share additional ideas of new revenue ahead of the next budget meeting in the spring.
“We need to think really hard about how we’re going to correct our financial situation by increasing revenue, and we also have to think really hard about where we can cut. So this is my ask to the rest of the council, please cooperate with me on this.”
In her commissioner’s comments, Jessica Voogd said: “I’m a strong proponent of not wanting all of the responsibility of creating new revenue to fall on the backs of residents.” She added that a restaurant tax would raise money from residents of neighboring communities who dine in Forest Park. “I look forward to having a conversation with all of you in the coming months.”
And during Mayor Rory Hoskins’ commissioner’s comments, he said that, as a part of the new Northern Illinois Transit Authority that takes effect in June, the village expects to be reimbursed about $1 million a year for the rising number of first responder calls to the CTA station on Des Plaines Avenue.
“It’s going to be an opportunity to hopefully realize new revenue. We didn’t plan on that a year ago,” Hoskins said. “It’s meaningful, it’s in the law, but now just has to be implemented. We’re always looking for ways to increase revenues, and a big part of why I encourage you [commissioners] to take part in things like the West Central Municipal Conference is to help that dialog, build the relationships with stakeholders at the state, county and federal level, and help to be more effective in our roles.”
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