Council narrowly votes to introduce budget amid push for cuts

The Evanston City Council voted 5-4 to introduce the city’s fiscal year 2027 budget Monday night. But with several alders, including those voting with the majority, continued to voice support for cutting the budget and lowering the property tax hike before the budget is adopted later this month. The budget, as introduced, included about $3 million in reductions from City Manager Luke Stowe’s initial budget proposal. His revised version, weeks of presentations and meetings included about $3 million in cuts, lowering the proposed property tax hike from a 10.1% increase to the city’s portion of the property tax levy to a 4.1% increase. The originally proposed increase would have cost the owner of a median-priced home $180 more each year. Voting against the budget were Alds. Clare Kelly (1st), Tom Suffredin (6th), Parielle Davis (7th) and Matt Rodgers (8th). voted against advancing the budget. The cuts Stowe proposed include introducing a partial hiring freeze and upping the city’s job vacancy rate along with three additional cuts to staff in addition to those already proposed , all of which are currently vacant or soon-to-be-vacant roles pending planned retirements. A separate ordinance to adopt the city’s proposed tax levy also was introduced on a 5-4 vote, although Harris and Suffredin flipped from their vote on the budget, with Harris voting no and Suffredin yes. Stowe offers budget cuts, but alders want more Rodgers: Budget talks like ‘Groundhog Day’ In addition to the property tax increase, rising for the second year in a row after several years without any increase, the budget calls for a 25% hike in water rate and additional fee increases on ride shares, streaming services and the natural gas tax. With that in mind, alders continued to push for more, with Stowe saying he is taking into account feedback, particularly on staffing levels, from all nine alders who had different opinions. The city’s headcount has remained a point of contention since Stowe first unveiled the budget earlier this fall, with the City Council quickly zeroing in on staffing levels as a key focus area of potential cost savings, though Stowe has still not proposed layoffs of active city employees. “We have basically reduced the property tax levy [increase] by 60%,” Stowe said Monday. “If we were to try and go any further into the property tax levy reductions, then we would have to explore layoffs of active employees … In order to effectively do that, I would really need to know what programs and services that the council would want to reduce … in order to match layoffs.” Ald. Juan Geracaris (9th) was a vocal opponent of layoffs Monday night, calling it a “really bad idea” and not a “path we should go on,” though still urging Stowe to look for more cuts elsewhere. Ald. Bobby Burns (5th), attending the meeting virtually, came to Stowe’s defense on the budget, reiterating a point he made earlier in the year that he felt the City Council hadn’t provided enough direction to Stowe to allow the City Manager to effectively do his job. “We’re not providing the right type of direction for our City Manager,” Burns said, calling on his colleagues to “step up and provide further clarity” on specific budget cuts or new revenue streams, rather than general requests for cuts delivered from the dais. Burns endorsed revisiting an early retirement proposal, which alders opted not to include in the budget after concerns that it could lead to the departure of critical city employees who would be hard to replace. The early retirement proposal is a plan that could be revisited next year but is not likely to make it into the budget, which will be on the agenda for final approval on Nov. 23. Iles was also interested in revisiting an early retirement plan, but also criticized what he seemed to describe as short-term fixes to a structural deficit in its final year of relying on excess reserves. “We have a structural deficit,” Iles said. “We need to work to revive revenue.” Rodgers said the growing budget would harm working people who aren’t covered by safety net programs, describing a “great fear that Evanston will quickly become a city of rich and poor and not much in between.” “The simple fact is, we need to find ways to cut our budget,” he said. “We just cannot keep growing because it’s not sustainable for people in the middle class.” Rodgers said he raised “specific positions” with Stowe, not naming them since they are filled by current staff, which he said he felt the city “does not need at this time” as places to cut. Stowe said staffing reviews are still ongoing and could change again before the final budget is proposed later this month. His staff provided the City Council with an outline and justification from each department on its staffing levels, though alders noted they only received the document a short time before Monday’s meeting began and didn’t have enough time to review it fully. The City Council will consider the budget again, alongside its associated property tax levy, the 2027 library tax levy and all the associated fee increases, at its Nov. 23 meeting. Related