Rolling Meadows examines what it could cut

Facing the choice of cutting services or raising property taxes, Rolling Meadows City Council members on Tuesday discussed how to hack away at the nearly $1.7 million deficit facing the city.

The proposed budget as it stands in its current form available to the public beginning today on the city's website, at city hall and at the library would require a 30 percent increase in the city's portion of the property tax to be balanced. Several officials have emphasized that they will not vote for a 30 percent tax increase; however, discussion over what exactly would be cut did not come without frustrations from council members Tuesday.

After going through budget items line by line Tuesday, 4th Ward Alderman Brad Judd expressed irritation with the process. "The stuff we're picking at here... even if we wipe out everything everyone's said here... that'd be $20,000? I don't know what we're supposed to do to cure this," Judd said. "What are we going to pull out batteries and coffee that's, what, $350? We're kind of spinning our wheels here. We've got much bigger problems. It's not going to get us anywhere near $1.7 million.

"I heard from numerous people: 'Raise my taxes.' I don't want to get so bogged down with little things, picking pennies off the floor," Judd added. "Unless something drastic changes, to me 30 percent (increase in property taxes) is on the table and pretty viable; unless we change something fundamental."

Mayor Kenneth Nelson countered, "Somewhere down the line we're going to have to make a decision - by looking through this we're getting a sense of what's in each individual budget and we can start looking at the bigger picture."

Council members then discussed temporarily discontinuing the city's parade and fireworks display.

"We haven't had as much budget for fireworks; it's been progressively reduced. This year it doesn't seem up to same standards as in the past. Despite the fact that they aren't as spectacular as they may have been when we had money to spend on it - they are our fireworks, darn it, and we don't want to give them up," 7th Ward Alderman Jim Larsen said.

"If it gets out of the budget once, there's a very good chance it may not come back," 2nd Ward Alderman Barb Lusk agreed.

Ward 1 Alderman John Pitzaferro said, "I just think there are certain things that are kind of sacred, so to speak. To me, the Fourth of July has always been something that has been celebrated. We got enough things to be depressed about, I think our city deserves to have a parade and we deserve the fireworks."

Discontinuing the parade in 2011 would save about $26,000, officials said.

"We're looking from feedback from residents. This is a good opportunity to give us feedback - are these things you want to see stay or do we cut them out of the budget so we don't have to raise taxes as much as we anticipate?" 5th Ward Alderman Glenn A. Adams said.

Sixth Ward Alderman John D'Astice also encouraged resident input.

"If people want to save a couple thousand - I'd like to hear some feedback on that," he said.

City officials also agreed to drop costs such as $1,500 for the Halloween giveaway of glow-in-the-dark necklaces; $600 for village shirts; $200 for books and publications; $600 for business cards; money for professional development, office supplies and more.

Paraphrasing a saying, D'Astice said, "How do you eat an elephant? The answer is: one bite at a time."