Des Plaines is poised to spend $127 million on city services and capital projects next year.
With revenue boosted by the opening of The Rivers casino, the city will have a balanced budget, City Manager Michael Bartholomew wrote in an introduction to the 464-page document that aldermen are scheduled to vote on Tuesday.
The proposed budget assumes $116.8 million in total revenue, of which $58.4 million goes to the general fund to pay for basic services like fire, police and public works. Total revenue is anticipated to be 4.2 percent above the current budget due to the casino, city officials said. The gaming tax fund expects to get $19 million, from which $13.6 million is proposed to be spent on capital projects and debt reduction.
Overall outlays would be $14.5 million, or 12.9 percent more than in the current year, mostly due to increased capital and infrastructure spending. General fund expenditures would be up 4.2 percent over the current year.
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Among the budget’s highlights is a $12.7 million capital improvements program that includes $850,000 for sidewalk repair. Finance Director Dorothy Wisniewski said that includes funding for ongoing repairs as well as the first of two years’ worth of money to tackle a $1 million sidewalk repair request backlog. She said the capital projects fund — which lays out planned expenditures for infrastructure improvements like street, sidewalk and sewer repair and replacing municipal vehicles — is being helped by a $3.3 million infusion from the gaming tax fund, which collects tax revenue from casino.
The capital budget also would spend $2.9 million for street work, $1.7 million for water system work, $423,742 for alley repairs and $3 million in miscellaneous programs and projects, including $50,000 to equip some Des Plaines police cars with Automatic Electric Defibrillators.
The proposed budget also has $18.5 million in “unassigned” funds — the newer and preferred term for “reserves,” Wisniewski said.
That drew a cautionary note from Ald. Matthew Bogusz, who said the city still has projects, including water meter replacement and a possible water main connection to Evanston, as well as paying down Tax Increment Financing district debt.
“It’s not just there for the spending,” Bogusz said. “We have to think wisely on that.”
The city’s proposed property tax levy of $23 million (to be collected in 2013) is identical to the 2011 levy that was collected this year. The levy, which must be approved separately from the budget, is scheduled for a public hearing and first reading on Nov. 19, followed by final approval on Dec. 3. The levy must be filed with the Cook County Clerk’s office by Dec. 27.