Evanston aldermen will get a report Monday saying the city is on track to meet its budget targets for the year.
In the report, Assistant City Manager Marty Lyons says the city had collected 49.9 percent of projected full-year general fund revenue at the half-way mark of the year and had managed to keep spending to 44.7 percent of budgeted full-year expenses.
But Lyons notes that part of the spending shortfall is a result of an oddity in this year’s calendar, which meant that only 12 of the city’s 26 scheduled pay periods for employees fell in the first six months of the year.
In addition, he says, costs for police and parks workers tend to rise in the summer, while there’s a risk of overtime costs for snow removal late in the year.
Several major general fund revenue sources — including the property tax, state income tax, real estate transfer tax and permit revenue are running ahead of budget, while sales tax and license revenue has fallen short of budget projections.
Lyons says the city’s enterprise funds for parking, water, sewer and solid waste, were all running below budgeted expenditure levels as of June 30.
Aldermen Monday will also be asked to adopt a schedule for preparing the budget for next year.
The schedule proposed by the city manager calls for starting with a City Council goal-setting session on Tuesday, Sept. 18, with a citizen budget input session the following night.
The city manager would then deliver his proposed budget Oct. 12.
The aldermen would discuss and revise the budget at meetings Oct. 29, Nov. 10 and Nov. 13 and adopt it Nov. 19.
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