With tax hikes, the death penalty, pensions and numerous other issues coming out of Springfield, the Naperville City Council is getting its two cents in. The city is taking the approach of meeting with lawmakers to see what is doable first.
The city's priority is controlling the cost of municipal employees. Labor arbitration and compensation are up for discussion. Pension reform, a goal from last year, will be back on the table.
The council is meeting this week to discuss these and other priorities.
What are yours?
Council setting legislative priorities
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Anon, do you pay attention to anything? Don't you know how many employees they've cut? My Lord, you'd struggle running a popsicle truck. Then again so would most of Council and City leadership. Uncle.
What this city council doesn't get is that they will never balance the budget and avoid a deficit with the approaches they have been using. They are hesitant to cut staff, they are hesitant to cut services and they are afraid to raise taxes. We have seen some creep in terms of adding or increasing fees instead of raising taxes.
It has become clearer and clearer that the city council, the city hall administration, and department heads either don't have the objectivity to make the cuts that are needed or they have too much vested interest in maintaining the status quo. We are at least a year past the point where independent consultants should have been brought in to analyze the situation and figure out what needs to be done.
Some programs/services need to be eliminated. Some programs/services need to be cut back. Every position in every department needs to be evaluated in terms of if it could be eliminated or if it could be performed more efficiently or more cost effectively if outsourced/insourced to a contractor.
Property owners are getting nickeled and dimed to death with fees and most of us fear this is just the tip of a looming iceberg. Bottom line we need to pay what we want for programs and services. The city council needs to hold about a dozen "town hall" meetings in churches and schools all across Naperville to get a better measure of what people are willing to pay for and what they can do without. If we are going to agree to a certain level, whatever that level might be, it should be fully included in our property tax which we can deduct and not packed into a bunch of fees we can not deduct.
In the big picture of our total property taxes what goes to the city is really just a drop in the bucket. We really need to better focus the same demands and expectations on both SD 203 and SD 204 to be better stewards of public tax money.
I think that the Council should put priority on unfunded mandates. That would have a direct reduction in the budget.
More smoke and mirrors, solutions will not even come close to bringing a resolution to the financial problems, it is nothing more then talk, to impress the voters.
Finanacial ruin is ahead for the State of ILLINOIS.
Ya know what would be interesting? If the Mayor and City Council acutally asked residents what they think our elected officials should work on. But no, guys like our out of touch Mayor and Dick Initforhimself Fursta-NO know better.