Members of the Evanston City Council say they are worried the budget projections they made earlier in the year won’t be met.
The council will hold a meeting in June to discuss the revenue projections and possible future steps to balance the budget.
Ald. Coleen Burrus (9th) said the overly optimistic projections will mean more layoffs and cutbacks throughout the year.
“I can’t imagine that we’re going to make it through the rest of this fiscal year without laying more people off,” Burrus said. “But if we aren’t reaching those numbers, something has to give because we have to balance our budget.”
Burrus said the revenue projections are just “prolonging the agony.”
“With the way we’ve gone about it, the pain will continue versus having all the layoffs and cuts at the same time,” she said.
Burrus said she is primarily concerned with the revenue projections for the city’s new yard waste program. When the program was created earlier this year, revenue estimates ranged from $500,000 to $1 million.
“Initially, council wanted to say they’d get $950,000 from the program, and luckily I talked them down to $900,000,” Burrus said. “It’s just not logical to think that you’re going to reach the highest end possible of revenues coming in the door.”
The real estate transfer tax estimates are inflated as well, Burrus said, but not as greatly as those of the yard waste program.
Ald. Don Wilson (4th) said he agrees with Burrus and was skeptical when the budget projections were first made.
“I had a lot of reservations about whether we were going to meet the budget projections that were estimated,” Wilson said. “For me, I think it’s important that we get back together to review the projections.”
Wilson said he supported making more cuts than the council ended up making. For instance, he voted to shut down the city’s branch libraries, while the council voted to keep them open at least six more months.
“My hope is that the money will come in, but if it doesn’t come in like it was projected, we’ll have to cut back more, maybe a lot more, to make sure that we stay in balance,” Wilson said.
Ald. Delores Holmes (5th) said she disagrees with Wilson and Burrus, saying she doesn’t know where Burrus is getting her worries from.
“She must have some information that I don’t have,” Holmes said. “I think we’ve done enough (budget cuts).”
Holmes said she can’t form a full opinion on the matter, however, until the council meets next month to discuss the projections.
“We’ll see what happens then,” she said.
Burrus said she thinks the council made what she calls “unrealistic projections” because they didn’t want to make all the cuts at once.
“People don’t like you when you do it, but I really believe it’s the right thing to do for the City of Evanston,” she said.
Moving forward, she said, the council needs to send a clear message to the city manager and staff that they need to look at things more honestly and realistically.
“Nobody likes to hear bad news and nobody likes to deliver bad news,” Burrus said. “But I think that the council needs to be really clear and say, ‘We can take this.’ I think that’s a leadership thing.”
Wilson said despite Holmes’ confidence in the projections, he thinks most council members are uneasy about the numbers.
“We’re all concerned,” Wilson said. “I would be surprised if anyone feels like we’ve done enough and we’re not going to have a problem.”[email protected]
