Aldermen are expected to approve next year’s budget tonight with few surprises — those will come later.
The ambivalent economy, unfinished labor negotiations and unsettled lawsuits all could change the budget scenario after it’s passed, City Manager Roger Crum said. But the council must wrap up the 2003-04 budget by the end of the week, so the aldermen will have to hope for the best, he said.
“We’re going to be in the waiting stage for the next several months,” Crum said.
Currently, the city’s property taxes are set for a 7.2 percent increase. The increase would raise $1.2 million for the city.
The issue that likely will be debated the most tonight, Crum said, is a proposal to double rooming house license fees, which apply to Northwestern dorms and Greek houses as well as hotels, the McGaw YMCA and private rooming houses.
The proposed fee increase is part of a budget amendment offered in late January by Ald. Gene Feldman (9th) that would increase the city’s estimated revenue by $888,000. The proposal would offset some of the most contentious cuts in Crum’s budget, including reductions in the police, fire and sanitation departments, closure of the South Branch Library and elimination of the Levy Senior Center’s program manager.
Most of the revenue that would fund Feldman’s plan comes from a higher estimate of income from parking fines. The rest would come by increasing the tax on monthly parking by 25 percent and doubling the rooming fees.
Currently, NU and the Greek houses pay more than $110,000 a year in rooming fees, which are charged based on occupancy.
Ald. Stephen Engelman (7th), university staff and Associated Student Government leaders have criticized the proposal, noting that the fees last increased three years ago. Other aldermen have proposed exempting hotels, the YMCA or owner-occupied rooming houses from the fee increase, but city staff have yet to determine whether such exemptions would be legal.
Instead of deciding on rooming fees tonight, the council could wait and study the issue further, Crum said.
Another question the council faces is how to allocate about $200,000 in extra funds city staff have wrung out of next year’s budget projections. The new funds were only revealed this week, so the council has not had a chance to publicly discuss how the money will be used.
The city could fund Feldman’s proposal with the new money instead of the rooming fees increase, Engelman said. Ald. Steven Bernstein (4th) has said he wants to use some of the money to save the Robert Crown Skate Park, 1701 Main St., which is in his ward.
Other aldermen have proposed using the money to reduce the proposed property tax increase or to provide a cushion against contingencies like the economy, labor negotiations or lawsuits. Currently the city is negotiating contracts with all four existing unions, while a group of 270 employees will vote later this week on whether to create a fifth union.
The only other major change the council has made to the budget since Crum submitted his comprehensive proposal two months ago is an increase in rents at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center. The aldermen passed the rent increase to preserve a subsidy for artists who perform community service through the center.
Harmon Penny, who lives near Michigan Avenue and South Boulevard, said City Council should use the $200,000 in extra funds to offset the tax hike rather than to restore programs.
“We can get back our beaches and parks, but (we will) never get a tax decrease,” Penny said.
Stan Rak, of Elmwood Avenue and Grove Street, said a tax increase would be worth it.
“I do feel like I get more living in this town, so I’m willing to pay more,” he said.
