Four candidates are in the running to succeed longtime Mayor A. George Pradel when Naperville voters head to the polls April 7. The Sun sat down with each candidate recently and posed several questions. In this, the second of four reports relating their responses, the candidates outline their approaches to municipal budgeting at a time when the city is facing a potential loss of $7 million in annual state funding.
Question: The city’s debt load has been on the rise, and its cash reserves have gone down in recent years. How do you alter those trends without hindering residents’ quality of life?
Doug Krause, 67
Saying the current budget is balanced and the projected shortfall for fiscal 2015-16 has decreased significantly, Krause expressed confidence in the process.
“Staff has always been super conservative. They’ve always overestimated expenses, underestimated revenues. I’ve been doing this for 26 years, and I see that it’s going to come,” said Krause, a longtime city councilman, repeating his vow never to support a property tax increase. “There are areas that if we need to cut, we can.”
He questions the claim that new borrowing is invariably harmful to the public dollar, saying the city took on debt in recent years to build fire stations and the new Public Works campus.
“There’s efficiencies that come with that … with the firehouses, now we have five-minute response times at the most, anywhere in the whole city. And that’s really worth it,” he said, noting that judicious borrowing can serve a purpose. “I don’t know many people who buy a house with cash. You take out a mortgage for 15, 20, 30 years, and we’re doing the same thing. This asset has a life, and it should be paid for by the people that are getting the benefit of it.”
Information about Krause and his campaign can be found at http://www.krauseformayor.com.
Marty Walker, 62
City staff have predicted that the expected shortfall in this year’s budget of nearly $7 million can be covered by year-end fund balances and anticipated revenue, but Walker is still concerned about the deficit.
“I’m trying to get a grip on this budget gap,” said Walker, adding that he’s met with the mayor and staff to discuss the “many moving parts” contributing to the shortfall. “It’s not next year. We’re in a deficit, right here and right now. It’s rolling over. So how are we going to fix it next year?”
Departmental budget requests typically include “wiggle room,” Walker said, which offer an opportunity to cut expenses without layoffs. He agrees the city must rebuild its cash reserves and said he’s keeping an eye on Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s promise to look for ways to bring new business to the state, which would focus new attention on some of the long-vacant retail spaces on Route 59 and Ogden Avenue.
“It’s more than just sharpening your pencils. It’s looking into the future of the city, and being able to work with people that makes a difference, without having to raise taxes,” he said. “It’s being creative, working with our tourism (agency), saying, ‘Come to Naperville, we have a beautiful downtown, we have the Riverwalk.’ It’s thinking outside the box.”
Information about Walker and his campaign can be found at http://www.martywalkerformayor.com.
Steve Chirico, 54
The city has made staffing cuts without hampering services to a great extent, said Chirico, a first-term City Council member.
“I think that Naperville has done a pretty darn good job of managing the city. I think our city manager’s done a good job, I think our directors are doing a good job, I think Naperville residents truly do get a good value for what they pay into the Naperville city’s portion of their property taxes,” he said. “So I don’t necessarily think it’s a spending-cuts thing. I believe that we can continue to provide funding for this high-level service through additional revenues, and we grow our revenues organically through economic development. And that’s really my focus.”
Residents want high-quality services, safe neighborhoods and well-maintained streets, Chirico said.
“We’re not going to be cutting those programs, and so then it gets down to ‘OK, we need to find another way of paying for them without putting all the burden on property taxes,” he said, adding that cuts in state funding could compound the challenge. “We need to have a plan that’s based on how will we have a local economy that’s going to support our residents? And that’s really what I want to think about (and) work towards.”
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Information about Chirico and his campaign can be found at http://www.chiricoformayor.com.
Jim Haselhorst, 55
Discussion of increasing property taxes is not entirely off the table, and Haselhorst is concerned about that. He thinks the city has done a fairly good job of curtailing its spending, however.
“There’s not a lot of fat left to be trimmed,” he said of city spending.
There have been service cuts that residents want restored, Haselhorst said. He isn’t dismissing the prospect of a property tax hike, pointing out that step hasn’t been taken in several years. It might be what’s needed to keep the city’s cash reserves from continuing to drain away. It would be a more secure strategy, Haselhorst said, than raising utility rates or sales taxes, but that doesn’t make it a move he would relish.
“It’s not a pleasant vote,” he said.
Information about Haselhorst and his campaign can be found at napervillecandidate.com.