Urbana Updates

This post has a few updates on local government in Urbana, including some updates on the City's financial forecast, liquor code revisions, and Urbana schools District 116's new SROs on their recent training.

The City of Urbana's financial forecast has been in the news for positive outlooks. From WCIA earlier this week:

The city just released its financial forecast for fiscal year 2021 through 2025, and mayor Diane Marlin says the city is in better financial shape now than it has been for the past 5 years.

Marlin also said this is the first time in 3 years they won’t have to make any budget cuts.

The budget forecast shows financial stability, even accounting for the fact that the city won’t be getting any property taxes from Carle.

More at the full article here including a video segment. The News-Gazette had more on this in their eEdition today, including some of the not-so-great parts of the forecast:

The five-year look-ahead wasn’t entirely rosy: — While sales tax revenue, which makes up 30 percent of the city’s general fund revenues, is expected to increase 3 percent this fiscal year, the forecast expects that “long-term growth in sales tax revenue will not keep pace with inflation.”

— The state also continues to divert 5 percent of the city’s share of income taxes, reducing revenue by about $250,000 next year. “Given the magnitude of the state’s fiscal crisis, there continues to be a possibility that diversions may increase in the future,” the financial forecast states.

— Contributions to the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund are “expected to increase by $125,000 on a recurring basis.”

That full article available on their eEdition here (subscription).


There's been some attention to Urbana's liquor code as Champaign has been looking at its fine structure and Urbana has been looking to revamp its own policies. Smile Politely had an editorial that also had a good overview of the situation:

Last week, the Urbana City Council presented their proposed plans to fully revamp the city’s liquor code, a process that has been ongoing since the middle of 2019. Mayor Diane Marlin and her team have been assessing the code because as time has gone on, the code has proven to be cumbersome and difficult to navigate. In last week’s city council meeting (specifically, February 3rd), Mayor Marlin discussed at length the city’s plans to revamp the entire code based on feedback from the community. There are a myriad of liquor license options, which, if you’re feeling up for it, can learn all about in the proposal linked above. With a variety of businesses looking to function within the structure of the laws set up by the city (and beyond that, the State of Illinois), the code has proven to be challenging at times.

As a result, Mayor Marlin and her team have worked for many months to make sure they are getting these revisions right. Ultimately, we see the work that the City of Urbana is doing to be a positive thing, not just because they are making the code easier for businesses to utilize and navigate, but they are paying attention to the feedback presented by members of the community.

That full editorial here. A comparison of local liquor fines was in the News-Gazette just a couple days ago:

For more on the Champaign fine issues, see the related News-Gazette article here or a Cheat Sheet post on a recent Study Session addressing fines here. Also see a recent Champaign-Urbana double feature Cheat Sheet post addressing issues affecting both cities.


WCIA also had an update on the new Urbana High School Student Resource Officers' latest training:

It was a 40-hour course that introduced officers to the duties of an SRO. The school board voted in November to create two full-time SRO positions. That decision came after issues with fights at both the middle and high schools last year. They now have full time officers at both campuses...

“I’d say the majority of them don’t even realize I carry a weapon,” said Urbana Middle School resource officer Michelle Robinson. Going from a patrol officer to a full-time school resource officer is something Robinson says took some adjusting, but it’s a change she’s starting to embrace.

“They’re getting more comfortable with me. So they come up. They’ll come to me before they come to support staff,” said Robinson. This week, she’s back from a 40-hour SRO training. “It teaches us some things that you probably wouldn’t understand on patrol. Triggers – a lot of mental health. A lot of, kindof learning to the why children are doing what they’re doing.”

That full article and video segment here.