By Ted Schnell • BocaJump | Dec. 7, 2011
The Elgin City Council is heading into the homestretch with its proposed 2012 budget, with one public hearing tonight and another on Dec. 21, immediately prior to the spending plan’s scheduled adoption.
Tonight’s public hearing is related to the property tax assessment the city expects to seek in 2012, which will be $1 million less than the 2011 assessment.
Assistant City Manager Rick Kozal said Monday that statutory publication deadlines required the city to begin publishing its legal notices on the 2012 budget using the administration’s favored “balanced approach” spending plan. That proposal sought a mix of cuts, new fees and maintenance of Elgin’s property tax assessment at the same level in 2012 to plug a deficit of as much as $13 million.
Since the city sent those notices to be published, however, the `administration has come back with Version 2 of the balanced approach, which adds a variety of taxes and fees and a $1 million decrease in the property tax assessment in 2012, increasing to a $10 million cut by 2014.
It is the fourth budget proposal presented by the administration. Two others — one favoring a stabilized property tax and fee increases to balance the budget, and a second featuring draconian cuts to do the same — largely were ignored by the City Council.
The Version 2 budget aims to generate $100,929,010 in revenue, the same as the first version, but in a way city officials believe is more acceptable and equitable because it provides property tax relief yet imposes new taxes that will be paid not just by Elgin residents, but also by those passing through the city. City officials also say the Version 2 budget will provide more reliable revenues to the city because it shifts Elgin’s reliance to a more diversified selection of revenue sources. Elgin has relied largely on four revenue sources its general fund revenues, while other communities have relied upon as many as 11 sources. The new budget adds five new taxes and fees and raises one tax in 2012.
To balance the city’s structural budget deficit, Version 2 include a $13.30 monthly trash-hauling fee, a $2 monthly fee for residents only in leaf rake-out areas, and a 3 percent alcoholic beverages tax, in addition to $2.8 million in spending cuts, which include the loss of 12 equivalent full-time positions.
Coupled with that, in a move to reduce property taxes, the Version 2 budget includes a natural gas tax and an electricity tax beginning in July 2012. In addition, the city would institute a storm water utility fee in 2014 or 2015.
Finally, the proposed budget includes an increase in the city’s home-rule sales tax to fund road maintenance and improvements.
The bottom line: Residents can expect to pay $58.68 more in taxes and fees in 2012, according to the city’s projections for the Version 2 budget.
The City Council meets as a committee of the whole at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 7, and is scheduled to convene its regular meeting at 7 p.m. The Truth in Taxation public hearing is the first item on the agenda of the regular meeting, which will be held in the City Council Chambers in City Hall.
