By Igor Studenkov | Bugle Staff
As the city of Park Ridge prepares to consider its budget for the next fiscal year, City Manager Shawn Hamilton presented a report on how Park Ridge would be affected by possible reductions to the city’s portion of state income tax revenue.
Like all Illinois municipalities, Park Ridge receives a portion of state income tax from the Local Government Distributive Fund. The fund currently collects 8 percent of the total tax revenue, with that revenue split between municipalities based on the proportion of their population relative to the state population.
When Bruce Rauner became governor, he proposed reducing the amount of income tax revenue that goes into the LGDF. In May, the city staff prepared a contingency plan detailing areas the city would have to make cuts to make up for the possible loss of revenue. With the city scheduled to begin the budget process later this month, Acting Mayor Marty Maloney and Fifth Ward Ald. Daniel Knight asked Hamilton to bring the plan to the city council for discussion during its Jan. 18 meeting.
The plan looked at three potential scenarios: LGDF reductions of 25 percent, 50 percent and if the revenue source was cut altogether.
If 25 percent of LGDF funding was cut, the city would have to cut $900,000 from its budget. To make those cuts, the city proposed eliminating one position per shift in the fire department, a total of two officers in the police department, a total of four positions in the department of public works and one position in the finance department. The city would also save money by delaying inspections, reducing capital improvements and road salting, and requiring city pest control to reduce baiting for wild animals. These staffing cuts would help Park Ridge save money on benefits, but city officials noted that it would also result in additional $25,000 in overtime spending, leaving the city with a total of $917,391 in cuts.
If 50 percent of LGDF funding is cut, Park Ridge would make more cuts on top of the ones outlined in the previous scenario. These additional cuts include one more position per shift from the fire department, two patrol officers positions from the police department, a budget analyst position from the finance department and a position from the administrative department.
In addition to the service cuts outlined in the previous scenario, the city would reduce road resurfacing and removal of dead trees, in addition to suspending tree replacements.
As in the previous scenarios, this would lead to reduced benefits costs but increase overtime up to $50,000, reducing the city’s budget by a total of $1.86 million.
The complete elimination of LGDF funding would add more cuts to the cuts outlined in the previous scenarios. The fire department would have to eliminate a total of four positions per shift, while a total of six positions would be cut from the police department and seven positions would be cut from the department of public works.
In addition to job cuts outlined in the previous scenarios, the finance department would cut its vehicle sticker sales staff, and the department of community preservation and development would cut three positions. The human resources manager position would also be eliminated and service reductions would increase. With $100,000 in overtime costs factored in, the proposed cuts would eliminate almost $3.7 million from Park Ridge’s budget.
Discussing the plan
During the Jan. 18 meeting, Hamilton told the city council that he would adjust the figures once the fiscal 2017 budget is adopted. He also said the calculations didn’t take budget surpluses into account.
Sixth Ward Ald. Marc Mazzuca argued that the city wouldn’t necessarily need to cut positions.
“Throughout the plan, it mentions positions eliminated,” he said. “If budgets get tight in private companies, [employees] get furloughed.”
Mazzuca also argued that, instead of firing employees that provide services to residents, the first step should be to furlough management positions.
Knight said one of the reasons why he wanted the city council to discuss the plan was to make residents more aware of the consequences of LGDF funding cuts.
“I think our residents should be encouraged to talk to their state elected officials about the severity of those cuts,” he said, adding that the officials who ultimately make decisions on LGDF funding should know the potential effects of any cuts.
Fourth Ward Ald. Roger Shubert asked if there are any current payments the state owes Park Ridge.
Hamilton noted that while there had been delays in funds that the state collects on municipalities’ behalf, such as the Motor Fuel Tax, the state has since caught up.
Shubert then asked if budget surpluses would factored into the plan.
Hamilton said he would prefer not to use the entire surplus to cover gaps, because Park Ridge only recently started getting enough money to put some aside.
“My recommendation may not be as severe, or it would be a phased-in approach to reductions,” Hamilton added.
Maloney said he wanted to reassure city staff that the cuts outlined in the plan are not something the city is looking to do unless the state decides to reduce municipalities’ share of the LGDF.
“Let me be clear that we’re having this conversation to prepare ourselves,” he said. “This isn’t something we’re pushing Shawn [Hamilton] for.”