Naperville fund will be used to pay off carillon

Just as Naperville staff members are preparing to close the city’s $700,000 budget deficit, the city’s Special Events and Community Amenities (SECA) fund took a $290,000 hit Wednesday night.

Council members voted 5-4 to allocate $600,000 over the next 3 years from the SECA fund to the general fund to pay down a $1.78 million letter of credit to pay off the Naperville Carillon.

The Special Events and Cultural Amenities grant program began in 2004 and is funded by a 1 percent tax on food and beverages citywide.

Late last month, the council gave preliminary approval to allocating approximately $1.9 million in Special Events and Cultural Amenities grants after receiving $3.6 million in requests from 99 organizations. But they couldn’t agree on the whether to shift the $600,000.

The $600,000 allocation made to the general fund Wednesday night — the largest single allocation — brought the total amount to $2.5 million, or $290,000 more than what’s in the fund.

Those who supported paying down the debt said they were comfortable spending the money that way because the Naperville Carillon is a special amenity and part of the arts.

“We should not take any money (from SECA) and put in the general fund, but paying off the loan does go to the arts,” said Councilman Kenn Miller. “It is musical and last year they had international carilloners meeting here so it is drawing people to Naperville.”

Councilman Grant Wehrli agreed.

”We are using a tax for its purpose of supporting a cultural amenity,” Wehrli said. “You may not like the carillon. You may not like the music it plays, but it is a cultural amenity.”

The SECA Fund has traditionally been used to fund carillon debt, as well as operations and maintenance. In fiscal year 2011, the accumulated SECA fund balance was used to pay off the then-outstanding separate $1.2 million carillon loan balance.

Councilman Paul Hinterlong, one of the four voting against the allocation, said he thinks the six-year-old carillon debt could be spread out over a longer time with smaller payments, to leave more money available for organizations.

“This really is a council bailout; a great little bonus chip here,” Hinterlong said.”I support spreading (the debt) out a little further. We can make it work. It will be a challenge.”