Although Evanston’s budget deficit is now almost $4 million, a majority of aldermen on the City Council voiced their opinions against closing the North and South branch libraries during a budget workshop held Saturday morning.
The aldermen unofficially voted to keep open the North and South Branch libraries, at 2026 Central St. and 949 Chicago Ave. Not all council members were present for the discussion, but six of the aldermen said they were in favor of keeping the library branches open.
While cutting the branch libraries would save the city $197,000, the proposal has been controversial, said City Manager Roger Crum.
On Jan. 1 Crum presented his official budget – a proposal that included cutting several city services, including the library branches, in order to balance the budget. Although Crum said at the time that the deficit was $3.6 million, on Saturday he said that number has now grown closer to $4 million because the city will receive less income tax money from the state of Illinois.
The reason for the decrease in state funds, Crum said, is because while Evanston’s population increased according to the 2000 Census, Illinois’ population grew more quickly – meaning the city’s portion of state money will decrease.
Although discussion of the library branches is scheduled for the Jan. 26 budget workshop, the aldermen decided to voice opinions at Saturday’s meeting because they felt it would be unnecessary for concerned residents to show up to next week’s meeting if the decision was fairly evident.
“I absolutely will not support any closing of branch libraries,” Ald. Ed Moran (6th) said.
Ald. Melissa Wynne (3th) said it was a waste of time to discuss something on which they had a strong consensus.
The aldermen discussed ideas for generating new revenue. Crum suggested raising the restaurant sales tax on food and beverages by 1 percent, which would be offset by a 2 percent reduction in the poured liquor tax in restaurants. The result is $700,000 of new revenue for the city.
Bill Stafford, the city’s finance director, said the Evanston is running out of revenue options and the needs to consider cutting programs.
The next budget workshop will be 9 a.m. Jan. 26 at the Civic Center. The agenda for the meeting includes discussion of police-related issues and proposed cuts to the summer youth program.
