City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz released Evanston’s 2012 budget proposal Friday evening, citing the national economy as an ongoing “area of concern.”
The country’s “trying economic times” continue to impact the city’s employment levels, housing opportunities and business development, according to Bobkiewicz’s letter attached to the budget document.
The city’s general fund budget proposal for the fiscal year starting Jan. 1, 2012, calls for more than $85 million in revenues and $87.4 million in expenditures, resulting in a deficit of over $2.4 million.
To balance that deficit increase, “difficult but necessary decisions” are reflected in the current proposal, Bobkiewicz wrote in his letter. One of those tough decisions, a 3 percent property tax increase, would help offset general fund cuts.
The budget proposal also estimates a 4.9 percent property tax increase related to non-general fund spending, which encompasses ballooning police and fire pensions. Thus, if passed, the city’s budget version would impose a nearly 8 percent property tax hike.
The general fund, which covers most day-to-day city operations, would comprise 34.8 percent of the 2012 budget.
The 2012 budget proposal also accounts for 11 full-time staff reductions, including five forestry positions. Those workers’ primary responsibility – the removal of large-diameter trees – can be outsourced to external contractors, a “common practice among suburban Chicago communities,” according to Bobkiewciz’s letter.
Under Bobkiewicz’s budget outline, the total city workforce would be trimmed by a little more than 1 percent, down to just under the equivalent of 800 full-time positions. The overall staffing reduction would result in more than an 11 percent decrease in city employees since fiscal year 2006-07, when 884 workers were on Evanston’s payroll.
In a press release Friday, the city noted the 2012 spending plan marks the third year residents have had their say in budget priorities through Engage Evanston. The input initiative included two budget workshops Sept. 17 and 22, online submission of service change ideas and a public survey.
The first stage of Engage Evanston netted 175 budget ideas offered through the city website, its 311 hotline and written comments sent to the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center, 2100 Ridge Ave., according to the budget document.
City staff then narrowed those budget suggestions down to 40 service changes ideas, which were presented to the Evanston City Council on Aug. 8.
Next, the city solicited feedback on the upcoming budget proposal through an online survey, which closed Sept. 22.
Survey responses were finally incorporated into cost-saving measures proposed in the spending plan released Friday, according to the budget document.
