The Naperville City Council held a special meeting Tuesday night to discuss ways the city might alleviate a looming $6.8 million budget shortfall.
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Chief among the proposals presented by staff Tuesday was a hike in Naperville’s monthly garbage fees, with each household seeing their monthly tab for that service increasing from $2 to $12.35.
City staff estimates that such an increase would eliminate about 75 percent of the fiscal gap. Staff would seek other ways to reduce costs to close the remaining gap, according to city documents.
Officials also bandied about the implementation of a 1 percent city sales tax, which could be enacted via Naperville’s home rule powers.
The 1 percent sales tax could help pay down the city’s municipal debt while bankrolling some unfunded capital projects, such as a new central parking facility that a 2012 assessment found to be necessary but which has no concrete funding source, according to city staff.
It was not clear Tuesday night when trash fees or a sales tax would come before the council for a formal vote.
The council also pondered financial principles that would guide the city’s spending in the future, including passing structurally balanced budgets each year, improving delivery of cost-effective services and seeking to reduce the city’s municipal debt by 25 percent in the next four years.
The principles wouldn’t be codified, Mayor Steve Chirico said.
The principles are “guideposts,” he said.
“And they can change,” Chirico said.
Naperville City Manager Doug Krieger said city staff would take the night’s discussion and bring requests and questions to next week’s City Council meeting
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