Naperville City Council approves $540 million budget for 2022

Naperville will spend more than $100 million on capital improvement projects, including a reconstruction of North Aurora Road, as part of its budget for the next fiscal year.

City council members this week approved the $540 million budget that goes into effect with the start of the 2022 fiscal year on Jan. 1.

The spending plan represents a 7.6% increase from this year. Roughly $32 million of the $38 million budget increase will go toward more than $100 million in infrastructure projects. Those projects include reconstruction of North Aurora Road with an underpass, reconstruction of the Washington Street bridge, and the downtown streetscape project.

On Tuesday, the city council voted 6-3 to approve the balanced budget. Council members Patty Gustin, Paul Hinterlong and Paul Leong cast the "no" votes.

The budget includes a property tax levy of nearly $54 million after debt service abatements. According to city officials, the average homeowner will pay $851 for the city's portion of property taxes, a decrease of about $19 from the previous year.

Across all funds, revenues are expected to exceed expenditures by $17.3 million. Additional revenue is projected through increased water and electric fees and higher revenue from the sales tax, food and beverage tax, motor fuel tax, and hotel and motel tax.

In addition to an expansion of capital improvement projects, budget increases are attributable to staffing increases, which some city council members pushed back against during budget workshops. City officials made personnel requests for the water and information technology departments. They also requested a sustainability assistant and communications specialist.

On Wednesday, Gustin and Leong said the lack of an independent staffing audit was one of the reasons they voted against the budget.

Gustin noted the "upward budget creep," something Leong also wanted to guard against.

"I'm disappointed and frustrated with it because I thought we really could have found some extra money, whether it's to fund new positions or just be more efficient in general," Leong said. "We can be more efficient with more political will."