Aldermen considered implementing a two-percent restaurant food and beverage tax at the Evanston City Council budget meeting Saturday.
The proposed tax could be accompanied by a two-percent decrease in the poured liquor tax. The current poured liquor tax is six percent.
City staff estimated that the tax would bring in enough revenue to reduce this year’s city property tax increase to about three percent. The proposed budget for the 2006-07 fiscal year recommended an increase of nearly seven percent.
Ald. Ann Rainey (8th) said restaurants would not be significantly impacted by the new tax because the costs would fall onto consumers.
“We’ve already done everything possible to help this industry,” she said. “I’m not going to go to Niles for a restaurant because of a two percent food and beverage tax.”
But the tax needed to be approached with more caution because restaurants are sensitive to pricing, and restaurants are a crucial part of Evanston’s economy, aldermen said.
Ald. Melissa Wynne (3rd) said Skokie and Wilmette do not have a food and beverage tax. Other municipalities have a one percent tax, she said.
Aldermen also used a large part of Saturday’s city budget meeting to discuss policy issues.
They spent 40 minutes of the three-hour meeting discussing a free beach token program that Evanston Director of Parks/Forestry and Recreation Doug Gaynor said would minimally impact the budget.
The City Council reviewed the Evanston Human Services Committee recommendation to provide 500 free beach tokens for distribution by Evanston social service agencies. A token provides access for an entire season and normally costs residents at least $20.
The program would supplement subsidies available based on income. The Human Services Committee recommended standardizing subsidies for all recreational scholarships, but currently the beach discounts are at 25, 50 and 70 percent.
Aldermen also discussed organizational problems.
Rainey said city staff needs to provide aldermen with more detailed information for the council to make decisions. For example, memo communication has been a problem between city staff and aldermen.
She asked for clearer identification of line items, more comparative data and more cost and benefit analysis on many city issues.
Other areas needing organizational change included youth services and administrative adjudication, aldermen said.
“If you look at the budget you will find youth services fragmented to the extent that you just have no idea how much of a service there is,” Rainey said.
Aldermen recommended centralizing youth services, possibly under a youth commission. Youth services are scattered throughout four city departments, making assessment of what the city offers difficult, aldermen said.
“If we’re confused, think of how our youth are confused,” Ald. Elizabeth Tisdahl (7th) said.
The council also discussed whether local administrative adjudication, the system that hears legal disputes about issues such as parking fines, needs reform.
Rainey said the program was inconsistent, and the proportion of convictions was too low. She said the city’s collection revenue should be higher.
But Evanston’s collection rates are similar to other cities’, ranging in the mid-to-high 60-percent range, Director of Management and Budget Patrick Casey said.
The city cannot just set a conviction quota, because defendants deserve a fair trial process, Wynne said. She said some residents already have the perception that rulings will be unfair.
“We have to guard against the sense that there isn’t any point of coming in because it’s rigged,” Wynne said.
Reach Jenny Song at [email protected] and Elizabeth Gibson at [email protected].
