Town of Normal staff is presenting a largely status quo budget for the coming year.
Town staff walked Town Council members through each piece of the budget Thursday during a daylong work session at City Hall. The new budget year begins April 1.
Finance director Andrew Huhn said the town's finances are generally strong, despite increased costs tied to the minimum wage increases, the town's new Smart Cities initiative, and higher recycling costs. But he says the town's water fund is doing better and might not need to continue its annual 2% fee increase—for at least a year.
“The water fund is in a pretty good fiscal position, we’re a bit over our target,” Huhn said “We can get to our target in about five years with some pretty long-term planning, but we could probably skip a year if the council wanted to.”
The proposed $70 million operating budget would be about a 2% increase.
The budget also sets aside $17.5 million for capital projects; that's down from close to $18.8 million last year, according to Huhn. The five-year capital budget calls for spending about $95 million over the next five years.
Huhn added the town ended up with a $1.2 million surplus following a series of budget cuts last year. He proposes the town spend that on beefing up road repairs. Huhn added the state’s increase in the gas tax helped bolster funding for transportation improvements.
“We’d like to do more obviously. It’s kind of a bottomless pit when it comes to fixing roads,” he said.
Wages and Personnel
Huhn projects the town will pay about $1.5 million more in wages over the next four years, mostly for parks and recreation and cultural arts seasonal staff.
“That’s probably the most significant issue we are having. When we finally get to the $15 per hour (in 2025) wage, we are probably paying anywhere from $900,000 and $1 million dollars more in salaries,” Huhn said.
The budget keeps staffing essentially level, with some part-time positions eliminated. It proposes restoring the full-time development coordinator position for the Cultural Arts department, which would be half-funded by the Children’s Discovery Museum Foundation, according to a budget-briefing document released to the media. That position was eliminated during the 2017-18 budget cuts. The budget also reflects the addition of a new communications and community relations director.
The proposed budget also calls for elimination of a youth intervention specialist position at the Normal Police Department. That position—a licensed clinical social worker—has been vacant since August. NPD said around 81 juveniles completed its Youth Intervention Program in 2018, according to its annual report.
Police Chief Rick Bleichner said those duties can be absorbed elsewhere. He noted that NPD now has school resource officers (SROs) in both Unit 5 high schools and three junior highs.
“We determined we were able to get by with just portions of that program,” Bleichner said. “Although it was certainly very beneficial, there were parts of it we felt we could absorb with internal staff. Existing staff could take on some of those responsibilities, and still continue the parts of the program we felt were beneficial.”
Parking, Child Care Increases
The budget includes an increase in parking rates for the three decks in Uptown Normal.
Parking would go up from $1/hour to $2/hour at all three decks (College Avenue, Uptown Station, and the one adjacent to the Marriott Hotel). The first hour would remain free at College and Uptown Station.
The increased revenue will help offset higher operating costs. Because of the state’s new parking excise tax (6%) and increased minimum wage, the decks’ operating deficit would grow from $14,000/year to around $155,000/year, said Huhn. The rate increases would chop that deficit down to $72,000/year.
The town hasn’t increased parking rates since the first deck opened in 2008.
“The decks are gonna need more and more long-term maintenance, so I’d hate to develop more of a deficit there to cover, and still not be able to develop any money for maintenance,” Huhn said.
Meanwhile, families could also be asked to pay more for the Parks and Rec before- and after-school programs. For before-school programs, fees would rise from $151 to $157 for each nine-week session. After-school registration would rise from $209 to $229 for a nine-week session.
The council will vote on the budget in March.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the town's capital budget.
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