The city of Aurora is planning to host town halls on the next two Saturdays about the proposed 2026 city budget, which includes significant funding and staffing cuts.
The town halls planned for Saturday and for Nov. 22 will be held at 2185 Liberty St. and start at 11:30 a.m. A recent post on the city’s website invited residents to join Mayor John Laesch and other city officials at the events to get their questions answered and to voice their thoughts on the ongoing budget process.
The city’s proposed budget for next year was made available last month, and since then Aurora aldermen have been reviewing the document during special meetings of the City Council’s Finance Committee. As proposed, the $569 million budget for 2026 is $163.6 million less than this year’s, mostly because of bonds the city took out this year for big construction projects, city officials have said.
Actual cuts to the city’s main operating fund made throughout the budget process totaled around $19 million, or around 7% of the starting budget. Despite those cuts and the loss of about 140 positions, around half of which were already vacant, the proposed budget still has a difference between revenue and expenses of $2.5 million in its main operating fund, down from the nearly $30 million deficit that officials said the budget had earlier in the process.
Laesch has said that the average resident wouldn’t see dramatic shifts in services under the proposed budget, and that staffing was considered last when looking for cuts to make. City officials have stressed that public safety departments like police and fire, which have the largest budgets, saw the smallest percentage cuts.
But, those departments are still proposed to lose over 60 full-time equivalent positions.
The proposed 2026 budget also does not include any of the previously-discussed funding for the Aurora Civic Center Authority, which owns and operates the Paramount Theatre among other local venues. Before the draft budget was released, the theater had already made cuts because it expected the city would give less than was previously communicated.
Typical payments to the city-connected organization from past years are included in the proposed budget, it just doesn’t have new funding that theater officials were expecting to cover the organization’s budget deficit.
Aurora officials have been saying for months that the city’s 2026 budget is facing its own significant deficit and that the city’s current financial situation is one of the most serious it has ever faced. Expenses have outpaced revenue, and past budgets had been balanced by moving money typically set aside for long-term needs like insurance and capital projects into the city’s general fund, Aurora Director of Fiscal Integrity and Government Operations Brian Caputo previously said.
Laesch has said that the budget crisis is now mostly solved, but that there is a little more work to do next year.
In addition to working on cuts for the proposed 2026 budget, Aurora officials in recent months have also proposed and gotten approval for some ways to increase or stabilize city revenue. This includes an approved increase to the city’s hotel tax, a proposed increase in the number of gambling machines businesses are allowed to operate and the approved local continuation of a grocery tax set to otherwise expire statewide at the end of the year.
Residents looking to sign up for the town halls or to learn more can go to: www.eventbrite.com/cc/city-of-aurora-2026-budget-town-halls-4792470
A copy of the 2026 budget can be found at: www.aurora.il.us/Government-and-Engagement/Finance/Budget
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
