BURLINGTON -- In last April's election, Kathy Loos ousted Village President Mike Block largely on her complaints that the village's finances were running in a gutter of red ink. Monday, the village board reviewed, in sometimes excruciating detail, what has happened to the village's accounts in the first five months since the new administration's first fiscal year began May 1.

The board members were guided through the examination by Village Treasurer Bonnie Prokop and Village Attorney Gary Vanek.

Board members decided tentatively that they will set a real estate tax levy, to be collected in the summer of 2010, that likely will bring in the same or slightly more money than this summer's, but likely will leave each property owner with roughly the same village tax bill as this year.

Board members agreed they should ask for about 4.99 percent more than the $109,597 that the county collector actually billed taxpayers on the village's behalf this year. Vanek and Prokop said that figure likely will be reduced by the collector to about the same amount that was collected this year. That's because, except for the impact of newly developed or newly annexed properties, the state tax cap law prevents a village from increasing its total tax collections by more than the cost of living went up in the preceding year, they said. So far in 2009, the Consumer Price Index is showing no increase from last year.

The levy increase percentage the board approved is just under the 5 percent hike that would trigger a public Truth in Taxation hearing, Vanek said. Yet it is large enough, he said, that if any newly built homes or newly annexed properties are added to the tax rolls, the village would get additional income from them.

For the May 1 to Sept. 30 period, Prokop said, the village has netted $36,787 more than had been expected. Two major changes from a year ago are that spending on Vanek's legal services is running $12,593 below budget and spending on Village Engineer John Whitehouse's services is running $8,717 below budget.

On the unhappy side, spending on festivals and events is running $3,810 over budget; interest income (because of record-low interest rates) is $9,275 below budget; and payments from the state (because of the state's own budget woes) are running $11,147 below budget.

Prokop suggested the village could save more than $25,000 in the second half of the fiscal year by not replacing a public works employee who recently quit.