Aurora offers buyouts to workers, as it plans 2026 budget

Aurora is offering incentives for workers to quit to reduce the city’s workforce, as Mayor John Laesch has unveiled a proposed 2026 budget that he says eliminates much of a $29 million deficit in the general fund he projected two months ago.

Laesch released the proposed budget Wednesday.

And on Tuesday, the city council approved buyouts for people to resign before the end of the year. The vote was 8-3, with aldermen Shweta Baid, Patty Smith and Jonathan Nuñez voting “no.” Alderman Will White was absent.

So far, the package is only for non-union workers because the city needs permission from the eight unions that represent some employees to offer buyouts to them.

The workers are being offered eight weeks of severance pay and eight weeks of health insurance coverage. They would also receive payment for any accrued vacation and sick days.

Employees have until Oct. 31 to apply. If accepted, departures would start in November.

“Our intent has been to offer the softest landing possible,” Laesch said.

The offer comes after Laesch instituted what he called a “hiring slushie,” in which departments had to get approval from the mayor’s office to fill vacancies and increase staff.

The proposed budget calls for 1,196 full-time-equivalent authorized positions, compared with 1,303 authorized in the 2025 budget.

Laesch said Thursday the proposed budget now has a projected $2.5 million deficit in the general fund.

That was accomplished in several ways, including:

• Eliminating the cadet programs for the police and fire departments;

• Getting rid of the community affairs department (although some workers will be moved to the communications department);

• Eliminating city funding for the STEAM Academy, an extracurricular educational program for children;

• Mothballing two of the city’s four fire engine ladder trucks; and

• Reducing the number of authorized police officer positions by 11 (seven positions are currently vacant), to 325 officers.

The overall budget proposes $596 million in spending. Besides the general fund, that includes the special revenue fund, including gambling tax, tax increment financing district spending and special service area spending; the capital projects fund; a fund to repay debt; proprietary funds, including water and sewer service; and the trust fund, for police and fire pensions and retirees’ health insurance.

“We are choosing sustainability over spectacle and stability over short-term gains,” Laesch wrote in the introductory letter to the proposed budget. He wrote that it marked a “deliberate shift to living within our means.”

The finance committee will begin discussing the budget Tuesday, Oct. 21. The city council is scheduled to vote on the budget Dec. 9.