Avoiding deficit spending in Elgin

Elgin’s City Council just passed a 2014 budget and three-year plan after months of presentations and discussions. The process included concerted yet ill-conceived efforts to send our community into deficit spending, threaten our AAA bond rating, and stop the progress this city has made in recovering from decades of decline.

One proposal had us eliminating the garbage fee and plugging the resulting $4.6 million hole by either:

Ÿ ignoring it and pushing the budget into deficit spending within two years, or

Ÿ burying it inside an increase in the property tax levy (so much for ‘transparency’).

Another proposal would take $1 million out of the budget with the financially irresponsible idea to change the estimated increase in our sales taxes from 3 percent to 3.5 percent — instant play money! It is ironic that we need to remind council members pushing these ideas to remain conservative in our projections and actions.

These attempts to enact unrealistic campaign promises threaten to derail the momentum gained from difficult but needed actions over the last five years that were all taken to allow city government to do its work more efficiently and less costly. We absorbed the worst of the recession’s effects for three years before resorting to tax increases.

I am pleased that our 2014 plan:

Ÿ provides a balanced budget;

Ÿ returns $1 million to taxpayers in property tax relief;

Ÿ maintains the reserves needed in the next 3 years;

Ÿ preserves our AAA bond rating; and most importantly,

Ÿ continues the quality services Elgin residents expect from their local government.

I will continue to oppose proposals that pander to everyone’s dislike of taxes that would damage our finances. I will also sustain efforts to improve Elgin’s finances and quality of life.

F. John Steffen

Elgin City Council member