Councilmembers press city for changes to 2027 budget proposal – Evanston RoundTable

Evanston RoundTable Evanston's community newspaper since 1998 Sign up for our free newsletters!One month into the city’s 2027 budget season and with initial votes fast approaching, several Evanston councilmembers voiced frustration with the lack of changes to City Manager Luke Stowe’s proposal during a special meeting Monday night.The budget-only meeting included a “Truth in Taxation” hearing on the overall proposed hike of 8.9% between the city and library’s property tax levies, well over the 5% threshold that triggers a legally-mandated hearing. After that ended, Senior Financial Analyst Michael Van Dorpe gave a brief presentation on the tax levies, which he acknowledged didn’t have “too much new content” compared to previous meetings.Among other details, Van Dorpe noted the city held its levy “relatively flat” in the five years between the last major hikes in 2020 and 2026, and that Evanston homeowners have the lowest overall tax rate among “peer cities” picked for comparison by the Finance and Budget Committee. Evanston is “smack dab in the middle” of this group, he added, in terms of the share of property taxes that go toward city, park and library services, which are the areas the City of Evanston’s levies cover.Councilmembers’ subsequent discussion lasted less than 15 minutes, and most who spoke were dissatisfied that the budget proposal presented Monday was effectively the same as the version Stowe released nearly a month earlier on Oct. 6. Matt Rodgers (8th Ward) said he’s seen the same presentation numerous times since then and could “probably recite it verbatim,” comparing it to the endlessly repeating day depicted in the movie Groundhog Day.“That’s not a fault on the finance team. It’s just that … there are some of us up here at the dais who do not feel that we are being heard,” Rodgers said. “I just don’t feel that there’s a real, honest effort to cut anything in this budget, and if that’s the case, that’s fine — I’m a no vote.”Rodgers, who chairs the Finance and Budget Committee, is pushing to cut some number of city staff to reduce spending and thus reduce the property tax increase. The proposal currently on the table would cut about 7.5 “full-time equivalent” (FTE) positions across the city’s staff of approximately 900, including 1.67 FTEs from the separately-budgeted Evanston Public Library.While council has until the end of this calendar year to adopt next year’s budget, the targeted schedule is fast approaching: the budget’s numerous ordinances will be on the council’s Nov. 9 meeting agenda for introduction, or preliminary approval. If those pass, the ordinances will return for final approval on Nov. 23, three weeks after Monday’s special meeting.Councilmembers Clare Kelly (1st Ward) and Tom Suffredin (6th) similarly pressed Stowe for more details on potential staff cuts, the latter noting he asked the city manager for “substantiation” of staff’s roles at the council’s Oct. 12 meeting. Stowe answered that he would bring that information to the finance committee’s meeting this Wednesday, along with “some additional cost-saving measures that I think will help if the council decides to reduce the property tax levy.”Suffredin said that while residents are “realistic that costs go up,” more details on what tax increases will go toward are necessary to demonstrate that people aren’t being “fleeced.” He told reporters after the meeting he shouldn’t have used the term, calling it “a little strong” and saying he just wants to show residents they get “appropriate value for the tax.”Kelly said she’s sent Stowe proposals for “substantial cuts” and also suggested reducing the minimum reserves required for several city funds and the “loss factor” included in property tax levies. The latter idea would lower the amount of extra revenue the city collects in taxes to cover anticipated losses from unpaid bills and other issues. Kelly suggested shaving that amount from 3% to 2.5% for debt repayment levies and from 2.5% to 2% for all other levies (the loss factor is already accounted for in the proposed 8.9% increase). Kelly told reporters after the meeting that she suggested cutting 10 positions in her proposal to Stowe, focusing on “mid-level managers.” For his part, Rodgers said he doesn’t have a “magic number” of positions he wants to cut, but that he’s hoping to see some overall movement when the finance committee meets Wednesday.“We can’t support everything that everybody wants,” he said. “We’ve heard, ‘Well, people would pay more for this in this budget,’ and that’s great, but that’s not the way our budget’s set up.”The finance committee will meet at 5 p.m. Wednesday in the Council Chambers, and two more joint ward meetings on the budget are booked for the Robert Crown Community Center at 1801 Main St. — one for the Second, Fourth and Seventh wards at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6 and another for the Third and Fifth wards at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10.As a financial supporter of the RoundTable, your contribution throughout the year powers our work covering all the vital news that matters in Evanston! Please consider making an additional gift! Your contribution is tax-deductible. We appreciate your support! Your commitment as a MONTHLY SUSTAINING DONOR helps us the most! Recurring contributions – at all levels – enable us to build a viable newsroom that will serve Evanston for the next 25 years! Your contribution is tax-deductible. We appreciate your support! Alex Harrison reports on local government, public safety, housing and homelessness, town-gown relations and more for the RoundTable. He graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism… More by Alex Harrison Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Email * Website Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ
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