Evanston City Council will vote Monday night on the adoption of a $164-million budget that could rely on large revenues from increases in property and natural-gas taxes.
Aldermen must approve the budget by next Monday, the start of the 2004-05 fiscal year. At a series of budget meetings over the past month, aldermen have reworked the budget to find alternative revenue sources.
“This is a council that over the last few years has emphasized raising fees and property taxes,” Ald. Edmund Moran (6th) said. “This year there was almost a complete lack of emphasis on cutting services.”
The original budget calls for a 6.85 percent increase in city property taxes — meaning a 1.2 percent increase for individual homeowners. This could add an additional $605,000 in revenue to the budget to pay for city services.
City Manager Roger Crum’s original budget proposal also called for a one-time use of $500,000 from reserve funds. Reserve funds are typically used in cases of emergency or economic downturn.
At a Feb. 2 budget hearing, city staff announced a recalculation that would set their projection of city revenues higher than expected. With this recalculation the use of reserve funds would not be needed to cover city services, said Bill Stafford, the city’s director of finance.
Ald. Arthur Newman (1st) suggested the reserves be used to pay for insurance for the city’s legal liabilities. The city currently faces $22 million in exposure from potential liabilities.
Another large revenue source for the city might come from a wholesale gas-tax increase. The proposal would increase the city’s gas-tax rate for institutions by 163 percent.
Nonprofit institutions and condominiums that buy gas wholesale from companies other than the city’s official provider, Nicor, Inc., would be most affected by the increase. Crum said the proposal would equalize taxes for residents and institutions that buy gas wholesale.
“I think at a minimum there will be suggestions (tonight) to lower the amount of the increase,” said Moran, adding that he would prefer to find a way to eliminate tax increases altogether.
By lowering or eliminating the amount of the gas-tax hike, aldermen would have to either cut services from the budget or raise taxes or fees some other way. Ald. Elizabeth Tisdahl (7th) said she supports the gas-tax increase and does not want to see city services cut from the budget.
“We’ve cut so much already that there’s a seven-year waiting list just to plant a tree,” she said.
Ald. Joseph Kent (5th) said he still has questions about the gas-tax increase and wondered how much the hike would hurt businesses and large institutions, such as Northwestern and Evanston’s two hospitals. He does not want city services cut and said finding alternative revenue sources is the council’s best option.
“I’ve been able to realize that it’s what we definitely need to do this year,” Kent said. “But there’s more than one solid way to work this out.”
In other business the council tonight could also consider changing zoning of Kendall College’s former property to a residential district.
Chicago-based developer Smithfield Properties bought the property in November. Residents have expressed concern in a number of recent meetings about the type of properties that might be constructed in place of the college, which borders NU’s campus on the west side of Sheridan Road.
The full council will meet at 8:30 p.m. The Planning and Development Committee will meet at 6 p.m. and the Administration and Public Works Committee at 7 p.m. The public meetings are held at the Evanston Civic Center, 2100 Ridge Ave.
