Update on City Finances Shows Some Revenue Increases

The COVID-19 pandemic’s financial toll on the City of Naperville might not be as bad as originally projected.

Revenue Update

At last night’s Naperville City Council meeting, city staff presented the dais with an update on the state of the city’s finances. They reported that some of the city’s revenue streams haven’t declined as much as their original conservative projections, and others are beginning to bounce back.

“We continue to see signs that revenues bottomed in July,” said the city’s Finance Director Rachel Mayer. “Staff will look to October sales tax revenues for signs that a trend is being established, as those revenues will reflect the period when Illinois moved into Phase 4, which is where we assume we will remain through year-end.”

The Food and Beverage tax increased 12% from June to July and is nearing pre-pandemic levels.

Areas of Concern

There are still several areas of concern, according to Mayer’s presentation. Staff considers the Hotel/Motel tax still as a high level of risk due to that revenue stream continuing to stagnate, and there are other factors across other revenues that could be limiting.

Expenses Also Down

Through August, the city has also spent about $17 million less than projected, though much of that is due to pushing capital improvement projects down the line.

City staff will publish an initial 2021 budget on October 16 before council holds the first of three workshops to discuss the budget on October 26.

Naperville News 17’s Casey Krajewski reports.