Elgin mayor wants summit for social services affected by budget impasse
As Elgin begins to tackle next year's budget with more questions than answers, Mayor David Kaptain wants to convene a summit for local social service agencies whose finances also are affected by the state's budget impasse.
"We are not the only ones to suffer," Kaptain said at the city council meeting Wednesday night.
Elgin must be proactive and figure out how any permanent cuts to social services funding would affect its residents, who in turn would seek more services from the city, Kaptain said. The summit will take place before the end of the year, ideally sometime in October, he added. Elgin's fiscal year begins Jan. 1.
Councilwoman Carol Rauschenberg called it "a wonderful idea," and suggested inviting area township officials.
The 2016 budget would be a "status quo" budget - largely characterized by planned expenses while maintaining existing programs and services - if it weren't for likely revenue cuts from the state, City Manager Sean Stegall said.
The city has approximately $30 million in reserves, which Stegall called "healthy." It's impossible to say now whether the city will need to dip into reserves to balance the 2016 budget, he said. This year's budget amounts to approximately $290.5 million.
"It's certainly not an ideal situation," he said, "but the level of stress (regarding budget planning) currently has been offset by the fact that for many years we have planned for significant anticipated events like a revenue shortfall."
The city is relying on reserves to make up for gambling and motor fuel tax revenues the state stopped disbursing as of July 1, said Chief Financial Officer Debra Nawrocki. The outstanding riverboat revenues amount to about $890,000; the figure wasn't immediately available for motor fuel taxes, which ranged from about $99,000 to $256,000 monthly for the first half of the year, Nawrocki said.
Also, the city was notified Wednesday that payments for grants that fund police department safety campaigns - amounting to a few thousand dollars each - could be delayed, Nawrocki added.
Unless answers come soon, the uncertainty over the state's budget is going to make the city's budget process more challenging, Nawrocki said.
The city has a "rolling forecast" budget model that calls for quarterly updates to the city council, with the next special meeting scheduled for Oct. 24. Council members decided that meeting should be held either at city hall or the Centre of Elgin because both locations are wired for videotaping, unlike the Hawthorne Hill Nature Center, where the meeting was initially scheduled to take place.
The topic of videotaping all meetings, including special meetings during which no formal votes are taken, was first raised by Councilman John Prigge. It moved forward Wednesday after a motion by Councilwoman Tish Powell.
Councilmembers also agreed to move a council meeting from Nov. 11 to Nov. 14 after Councilman Rich Dunne pointed out Nov. 11 is Veterans Day.
The city's proposed 2016 budget will be available to the public Nov. 4, when the city council will begin a formal budget review process that will continue through early December. Public hearings regarding the budget are scheduled for Dec. 5 and Dec. 16. The city must adopt a budget ordinance by Dec. 31.