City Budget News

Champaign and Urbana City Councils have been and are working on their budgets. The News-Gazette had a few articles recently with details. The fine print: C-U budgets today laid out various costs and inlays each city is expecting to receive for things like hotel taxes or liquor fees, and outlays for law enforcement. Also today they had an overview of the budget items approved in Urbana last night:

Urbana council approves budget that seals civic center's fate
The city council gave final approval to the upcoming fiscal year's proposed budget Monday, sealing the Urbana Civic Center's fate for closure on Dec. 31.

In total, the budget includes cuts and other efforts to secure about $600,000 in savings for Urbana's general operating fund deficit of about $2.5 million.

After the state budget impasse caused Urbana to lose about $500,000, and as the Carle Foundation Hospital property-tax case continues, Mayor Diane Marlin said the city needs a few years of saving money...

In addition to addressing the deficit, the budget goals include fully funding police and fire pensions, rebuilding financial reserves (or "rainy-day funds"), growing the tax base and starting long-term plans to repair and maintain public infrastructure. The infrastructure work will kick off after a facility planning study, which will recommend what to do with the vacant civic center, is complete.

Other cuts in the budget include reducing Urbana Free Library funding by $55,400 annually, absorbing a vacant fire-prevention inspector position that costs around $35,000 annually, and city department line-item reductions that total $75,000. The city will also continue its voluntary separation agreement for nonunion employees, which started last year.

In other business, aldermen also gave final approval to setting up an intergovernmental agreement that allows dockless bike sharing in Urbana, Champaign and at the University of Illinois.

More at the full article here. More on the dockless biking in previous Cheat Sheet posts here. There was a preview of Champaign's City Council meeting in yesterday's paper that mostly dealt with parking lot rules needing clarification:

There aren't rules on the city's books about prohibited activities in city-owned parking lots and metered spaces, but that could be changing soon.

The Champaign City Council plans to vote Tuesday on creating formal guidelines for what people can't do in those areas. Included in the proposal is mainly anything that's not related to parking, such as alcohol consumption, gambling, littering and selling products or services.

More at the full article here. There was also an article this weekend highlighting a midtown project that'll be voted on tonight as well:

The Champaign City Council will vote Tuesday on whether to chip in $300,000 in Redevelopment Incentive Program grants.

It's part of a project called Midtown Crossing, at the corner of Water and Chester streets a block east of the railroad tracks and just south of University Avenue.

More details on that at the full article here.