Few city residents know that the Township of Evanston exists. Even fewer could tell you why it exists. And Township Supervisor Betty Payne said Monday the township might as well cease to exist if she is forced to drastically cut programs to balance its budget.
Payne presented a budget proposal Monday night to the Evanston City Council’s Human Services Committee that would save the township $150,000 over last year’s budget. But the proposal still included a deficit of nearly $400,000 which could seriously hinder the township’s operations.
The township shares boundaries with the city of Evanston and is a separate taxing body from the city. It is governed by the city’s nine aldermen, who act as township trustees. The township provides social services for the city’s poorest residents.
The four members of the committee present at the meeting voted to ask Payne to resubmit a balanced budget at the committee’s May 31 meeting. But Payne said she has made as many cuts as she thinks she can and does not know where the extra money will come from.
“We have cut back to the point where we feel that if we are going to be functional we need to be funded at (this) level,” Payne said. “I don’t know how we’re going to get past this, but I will do whatever I can.”
Bill Stafford, the city’s financial advisor, said $50,000 in community action programs could be cut because the township is not required by law to provide them. He also said cutting about half of the township’s eight full-time staff positions would help the township meet its budgeted level of expenditures.
The township spent $1.4 million last year administering general assistance and job-related programs. The township provides clients with $334 monthly in temporary assistance. Of that amount, $150 is paid directly to their landlords.
Payne said her clients depend on the assistance for mere survival and if she made more cutbacks some of them could be forced to the streets.
“We can find money for the trees, for the arts and for the plays, but here we’re looking at 100 people for whom (the stipend) means a lot,” she said. “You’re going to have another 80 people panhandling if we cut these grants.”
But Ald. Gene Feldman (9th) said it’s easy for people to ask the council for more money, but it’s more difficult for the aldermen to make decisions about who will get it.
“There is no end to the demands for the funds that we have,” Feldman said. “I think we’re obligated at least to ask the township supervisor to come back with a balanced budget.”
Ald. Edmund Moran (6th) said the council should work with Payne to come up with a budget that both parties can live with.
“The question from my perspective is: Can we make it work?” Moran said.
In other action, the council’s Administration and Public Works Committee voted to recommend that the Rules Committee establish a budget committee to oversee the development of budget policy and to be more involved in early budget decisions.
“For a number of years I have suggested that the process should be changed,” Moran said. “The council’s involvement needs to be advanced.”
Under the current system, City Manager Roger Crum draws up a budget and presents it to the council on the last day of the calendar year. The council then has until March 1 to make changes to the proposal. The addition of the budget committee would eliminate the last-minute panic the aldermen go through every year as they try to balance the budget on time.
“The staff clearly has to make milestone decisions throughout the budget cycle,” Moran said. “I think it would behoove the council to get involved in those major policy-breaking points.”
