Naperville’s budget process off to a brighter start

Naperville council members kicked off their annual budget process with a bit of “pretty good news” Tuesday evening.

Several belt-tightening measures combined with better than expected retail sales tax receipts appear to have trimmed the anticipated $11.2 million fiscal year 2013 budget gap by $7.8 million.

“Is the problem solved before it started? Absolutely not,” said City Manager Doug Krieger. “We still have a very significant budget deficit that will take a great deal of work over the next several months to solve, but we’re one heck of a lot better off today than we were when we last reported.”

Finance Director Karen DeAngelis said moves made and reserves from fiscal year 2011 helped reduce that anticipated gap to about $3.4 million next year.

“We’re doing all the right things around controlling costs. We closed up fiscal 2011 with lower expenditures than we planned and those benefits helped us continue to move forward into fiscal 2013,” she said. “We are reaping the benefits of the cost controls that we’ve put in place. We’ve also been very successful negotiating contracts and receiving grants.”

DeAngelis said increases in local sales tax receipts have allowed her to forecast an additional $1 million both this year and next year.

Not all is rosy, however, as DeAngelis warned the local housing market is still slumping with the equalized assessed valuation expected to slide about 5 percent for the third consecutive year.

It was also suggested Tuesday that the council consider adopting an “Emergency Reserve Policy” that specifical spells out the type of “one time” event that would allow city officials to tap into its reserves.

The council’s next revenue workshop is scheduled for Oct. 24.