The city of Elgin’s proposed $314.8 million budget for 2022 is balanced, includes no new property taxes or fees, and calls for a $2.3 million surplus at the end of the year, City Manager Rick Kozal told the Elgin City Council Wednesday night.
Unspent money in the general and riverboat funds will allow the city to end the staff reduction at the Elgin Fire Department’s Fire Station 6, imposed last year as a cost-saving measure, and there’s about $2.8 million left in discretionary revenue to fund other projects, Kozal said.
But the good news “should not be construed as an indication of smooth sailing for the duration of the (city’s three-year) 2022-24 financial plan,” he said.
Preliminary projections show Elgin faces an $11.2 million deficit in the 2023 budget and $17 million in 2024, the result of several factors, such as the ongoing need to transfer about $5 million annually from the general fund to the recreation fund to offset a deficit in the Parks and Recreation Department budget, Kozal said.
Additionally, the Rebuild Illinois program is ending next year, which provided an additional $7.13 million to the city’s Motor Fuel Tax Fund for road projects, he said. That means more funding will need to be taken from the general and riverboat funds to pay for neighborhood street resurfacing and street rehabilitation programs, he said.
Kozal presented the council with an overview of the budget in advance of a series of meetings over the next month at which the council will look more closely at the spending plans for different departments.
The tentative budget calls for a flat property tax levy for the fifth consecutive year and a flat general levy for the seventh consecutive year, he said.
Water and sewer fees will remain the same. The $19.5 million the city received from the American Recovery Plan Act will provide the money that would otherwise have to be budgeted for the coming year’s work to replace lead service lines and continue the combined sewer separation program, Kozal said.
However, the money earmarked is just a small portion of the overall costs for both massive projects.
There are 13,500 lead service lines that the federal government has mandated Elgin replace over the next few years at a total price of about $135 million, Kozal said. Because of the federal relief funding, the city will not have to increase water and sewer fees for the time being to fund the work, Kozal said.
The sewer project requires sanitary and storm sewers that are combined be separated to stop contaminated waste from being dumped into the Fox River during big storms. That work has a $90 million price tag.
The proposed 2022 Elgin budget can be found on the city’s website along with a list of the council meeting dates at which it will be discussed. The public can watch and participate in those meetings or submit comments in advance of the budget’s approval on Dec. 15.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
