Evanston City Council members have adopted a 2016 fiscal year budget that calls for increased pension payments and makes first time use of Northwestern University’s “Good Neighbor” fund.
At the Nov. 23 City Council meeting, aldermen passed the $304 million budget without comment. The budget sets the financial course for the city over the next fiscal year, which begins Jan. 1.
Under the proposed budget, city contributions to firefighter and police pension funds will increase from roughly $15 million in fiscal year 2015 to $16.8 million in 2016.
A 2 percent property tax increase will generate roughly $800,000 toward the contributions. Under the increase, the owner of a home valued at $400,000 will pay an additional $36.79 annually.
Taxpayers will also pay slightly more in taxes to support the Evanston Public Library, which has a separate tax levy than the city and over which aldermen have no power.
The library tax increase of roughly 4.14 percent is to support building work, an increase in the collection budget, stepped up security and expanded neighborhood outreach, officials said.
It will result in the owner of a home valued at $400,000 paying an additional $11.27 next year, officials said.
Aldermen also included two late changes in the city budget — an additional $100,000 to fund pensions, and an additional $75,000 to the capital fund for the Main Street Commons capital project.
The Main Street Commons shopping center, located at 2400 Main Street, includes the Sam’s Club, Food 4 Less and Marshalls. Staff estimates the total cost of sidewalk and access improvements to the center at $950,000.
To successfully complete the project within the city’s current workload, officials recommended that the $75,000 be included in the 2016 Capital Improvement Project fund to allow a head start on engineering work.
“The sidewalk improvement will require significant planning in order to relocate the utilities and determine all the property lines (which are not uniform) and that will take many months,” said Lara Biggs, a bureau chief, in charge of capital planning and engineering with the city’s Public Works Agency.
The planned work includes sidewalk improvements stretching from Fowler to Hartrey Avenue; as well as intersection signal modifications. Construction is planned for 2017.
The Good Neighbor Fund constitutes “an important addition to available resources,” said City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz.
This is the first year for the program. In March 2015, Northwestern agreed to donate $1 million annually to the city for a period of five years, with the projects and services to be agreed upon jointly by Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl and Northwestern President Morton Schapiro.
The contributions include $200,000 to pay the cost of one full-time ambulance company serving the community; $500,000 to go toward a Sheridan Road improvement project to be completed in 2017; $150,000 in support for at-risk youth job training programs; $100,000 to the city’s Youth and Young Adult Division to cover the salary of one of the four existing full-time outreach workers and also allow the city to hire an additional outreach worker; $50,000 to go to the mayor’s fund to assist families impacted by violent crime.
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