Elgin may be $10M-$13M in red

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Updated: November 20, 2011 8:58AM

ELGIN — The city’s projected budget shortfall could be almost three times larger than the $4.5 million already predicted in June.

On Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Dave Kaptain said the city might find itself between $10 million and $13 million in the hole as it works to balance its 2012 budget. The reason: declining property values bringing in significantly less tax dollars. About 46 percent of the city’s general fund revenues come from its share of property taxes.

As such, Kaptain said, “There’s no way we can cut enough services to make up that amount.”

City Manager Sean Stegall said late Tuesday afternoon that he had contacted council members and city workers with the unsettling news.

With the original projection, Stegall said he and staff always were apprehensive about setting a figure based on incomplete data and that “we did the best with what we had at the time.”

In September, Kaptain and his wife Sandy received a new Kane County property tax assessment on their home, which is in the Eagle Heights neighborhood on the city’s northwest side. It was 20 percent lower than 2010, Kaptain said,

Recently, the city learned from the Kane County Assessor’s Office that the city’s collective equalized assessed value has declined close to the 20 percent that the Kaptains experienced with their home.

Kaptain said he will meeting with Stegall this week to discuss the new projections. And the news will be a subject of discussion at next week’s city council meeting, Kaptain said.

With all the city’s major revenue streams declining, Kaptain said the budget process this time will be a more complicated one than in prior years, with more meetings and tough choices to be made.

“None of them will be pleasant,” Kaptain said.

The city’s citizen budget advisory task force concluded its weekly sessions in late September and worked anticipating a $4.5 million structural deficit. With the larger new number, Kaptain said he sees the group’s work as a way to get the conversation started with the suggestions it will be formalizing for the council as budget season approaches.

Task force chairman Carl Missele has said the consensus was not to raise existing taxes but to look at making cuts and adjustments first and foremost to close the $4.5 million general fund gap.

The group came up with just $2.4 million in suggested cuts, including putting off funding a regional park on the far west side, which would save more than $442,000; eliminating the leaf rake-out program that would save more than $366,000; ending a service agreement for economic development work with the Chamber of Commerce, which would save about $400,000; eliminating sponsorship of the concert series at Hemmens, but for the summer theater production, and switching to a model based on rentals, which would save about $175,000; outsourcing custodial services, which would save about $172,000; reducing or eliminating a contract for mowing services, which could trim $160,000; and having snowplowing begin only after 2 inches are on the ground, which could save $100,000 in overtime costs.

Other suggested substantial cuts include eliminating the refuse sticker subsidy, which would save $70,000; cutting about $64,000 funded to the Elgin Symphony Orchestra; reducing the number of hours school crossing guards are on duty to the amount of $67,000; and eliminating a downtown holiday program planned for this December, which would save $49,000.

The group also will suggest that the council take a hard look at salaries and benefits paid to city personnel and at cutting funding the Downtown Neighborhood Association.

Disappointed by the bad news Tuesday afternoon, Missele said, “The council will have its hands full.”