After months of deliberation, the Naperville City Council has set in motion a $641.14 million spending plan for the year ahead through the adoption of a 2025 municipal budget. The council approved the budget in a 7-1 vote at its Tuesday, Dec. 3 meeting.
While city officials are moving forward with a 2025 budget, several weighty questions continue to loom in the foreground as deliberations over funding priorities are intermingled with forthcoming challenges on the revenue side of the ledger.
The grocery tax and police funding
The budget adoption does come with lingering questions for the year ahead, including funding the Police Department’s Mobile Crisis Intervention Team (MCIT).
City officials are seeking new revenue sources in anticipation of a $6.1 million deficit attributed to revenue generated from Illinois’ 1% tax on groceries, which is ending on Jan. 1, 2026. Discussions over new revenue opportunities to offset the loss of grocery tax revenue could determine whether the MCIT moves forward in the short term.
Councilman Ian Holzhauer, who cast the dissenting vote, said he had concerns with some of the plans set forth in the upcoming budget.
“I think we have sufficient reason to believe up here that we are going to be unable to fund some of our very important public safety obligations next year, specifically the hiring of police officers and firefighters for mental health services, while also accommodating the size of the cut to the property taxes in this budget,” Holzhauer said, referencing the MCIT.
“I don’t agree with that approach,” Holzhauer added. “I think services, particularly for mental health and public safety, should be a priority right now.”
‘Sharpen the pencil’
The council has been hashing over the 2025 budgets over a series of workshops that took place over multiple months this fall. Several possible measures — including staff layoffs — were floated as a possibility to address the loss of grocery tax revenue.
Resident Marilyn Schweitzer addressed the council about this issue at the recent meeting, prior to the budget adoption.
“What disturbs me from what I’ve heard in budget discussions is a focus on making up for the loss with staff layoffs,” Schweitzer said. “Staff seems, already to me, to be painfully stretched thin.”
Councilman Josh McBroom said the revenue quandary is an opportunity for the city to take a top-down look at operations and consider possible refinements — particularly if a new local tax is implemented to offset the revenue loss from the grocery tax.
“It’s a unique opportunity, I believe, to maybe sharpen the pencil a little more,” McBroom said. “We, as elected officials, are going to be asked to institute a new source of revenue, a new tax on residents. I think it would be irresponsible of us, in our position, to simply not ask questions. If we’re going to be asked to raise new revenue and tax residents, we do have to ask hard questions.”
Other budget details
Recent budget meetings have focused on such capital items as aging pipes and overhead lines, which are a part of the upcoming budget.
The upcoming spending plan includes $168.78 million toward capital items and $129.75 million toward salaries and wages. Employee benefits and related incidentals comprise $52.67 million of the budget, while insurance benefits are expected to take up $28.28 million of the budget.
The council is slated to vote on the 2025 property tax levy by way of a resolution at its next meeting on Dec. 17.
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