Naperville budget to cost average homeowner $255 more
The city of Naperville plans to spend $429 million next year while beginning to reduce its overall debt and rebating some taxes to property owners.
Council members unanimously approved the budget including a $56 million capital spending plan, both of which decreased by $4.3 million from previous proposals because land acquisition money for future expansion of the central parking facility on Chicago Avenue was cut.
"We will have a structurally balanced budget, reduce property taxes by $2 million and by the end of 2016, we'll reduce debt by $6 million," Mayor Steve Chirico said.
Budget approval marks the end of a monthslong process to improve the city's financial situation and begin budgeting by calendar year instead of a fiscal year that ran from May 1 to April 30.
At the beginning of the process, the city stood $120 million in debt, had $18 million less in reserves than is required by policy and was facing a $6.8 million deficit that grew to $8.2 million because of projected decreases in three revenue sources.
For the past 12 years, the city had been consciously spending down reserves to avoid property tax increases during the recession. Officials determined earlier this year that the strategy had to end because reserves had been spent down. So the council had to find new revenue sources.
The budget will be supported by an additional $5 million in garbage fees, which will increase from $2 to $12.35 beginning Jan. 1 and by a new 0.5 percent home rule sales tax, which will be charged beginning Jan. 1 and is projected to bring in $6.4 million.
For the average Naperville homeowner of a $385,000 house, these changes, along with an 8.3 percent electric rate increase, are projected to increase the cost of living in Naperville by $255 next year.
Staff members filled the rest of the budget gap with $1.8 million of cuts by leasing instead of buying a fire engine, a sewer cleaner vacuum truck and copy machines; reducing police overtime, police and fire supplies, insurance and subscription costs, grant-funded projects, contract accounting services, job applicant tracking costs, advertising costs for providing public notice of meetings and the assistant legal director into a part-time position; and eliminating the accessibility coordinator position.
On Tuesday, the council also approved $2.7 million in additional cuts to capital improvement spending by an 8-1 vote. Council member John Krummen opposed the spending plan because he wanted to see deeper cuts this year to help the city reduce debt faster.
A financial principle approved in August states the city aims to reduce debt by 25 percent by 2023. Naperville also plans to increase its reserves to 25 percent of operating expenses in the same eight years.
"The city needs to temporarily reduce our spending in order to lower the debt level," Krummen said. "Even though we are progressively lowering debt, we need to be more aggressive."