The Evanston City Council tonight is expected to set a schedule for putting together its 2012 budget — a document expected to require millions of dollars of reductions in city spending to avoid a property tax increase.
The Evanston City Council tonight is expected to set a schedule for putting together its 2012 budget — a document expected to require millions of dollars of reductions in city spending to avoid a property tax increase.
The schedule, as proposed by City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz, begins on Monday, Aug. 8, with an evaluation of city services that is expected to include comparisons with similar communities in Illinois and across the country.
Then, after the council takes its traditional August recess, it will resume the budget debate with a council goal-setting session on Monday, Sept. 12., followed by two citizen budget input sessions on Saturday, Sept. 17, and Thursday, Sept. 22.
City number-crunchers will present a mid-year review of the city’s financial performance against this year’s budget on Monday, Sept. 26, along with a preview of revenue and spending expectations for 2012.
Then on Friday, Oct. 7, the City Manager will deliver his proposed budget for 2012 to the aldermen.
The councill will hold budget discussions on two Saturdays, Oct. 15 and 29.
It will hold the state mandated “truth in taxation” public hearing on Monday, Nov. 14, and get preliminary figures on the tax levy required to fund the budget.
The schedule also includes an optional session for further budget discussion on Wednesday, Nov. 16, with budget adoption scheduled for Monday, Nov. 28, after the Thankgiving holiday.
The new budget will also complete the city’s transition from a fiscal year that ran from March 1 to Feb. 28 with one that matches the calendar year. That change was designed to let the city adopt its tax levy at roughly the same time it approves the budget, rather than having to adopt a tax levy before the budget was set.