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Proposed Geneva budget up 14 percent

Geneva officials are considering a proposed 2014-15 budget of $89.3 million, a 14 percent increase from this year's spending.

However, $5.3 million of that bump is due to the construction of the third level of the Metra station parking deck being postponed from 2013 to 2014. Aside from that one-time cost, the budget increase is 5.2 percent.

The budget was presented to the city council's committee of the whole Monday.

A public hearing will be conducted April 7, and the council is scheduled to vote on it that night.

The cost of purchased electricity is expected to increase $2.5 million, Administrator Mary McKittrick pointed out to the council Monday night.

The budget also calls for an additional $2.4 million in capital infrastructure work. Possible projects, not related to the electrical or water departments, could include developing the City Hall gardens, constructing a pedestrian mall off Third Street, and renovations to City Hall.

The enterprise funds ­- electric, water/sewage, refuse, cemetery and commuter parking - account for $56.8 million of the total spending. They are supported primarily by fees charged to users.

McKittrick also pointed out that the city has an electrical workers' contract that expires this spring, and that workers in the street department have recently formed a union and begun negotiating a contract.

The budget can be viewed at geneva.il.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/939.

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