Evanston’s Finance and Budget Committee met earlier this month to discuss its 2024 goals, something many residents are keeping an eye on after the city expressed financial concerns during its 2024 budgeting process.
“I am hoping we establish a budget that staff is bound to follow,” resident Mary Rosinski said. “Spending gets put on agendas as a special order of business and the council is burdened with having to make an important decision.”
Committee Chair Shari Reiches presented her goals to the committee, saying she wants to focus on identifying additional revenue sources, establishing a long-term debt plan, review pension progress, benchmark data and review expenses.
Reiches said identifying new grants could help bring the city new revenue options. Additionally, she expressed a desire to explore non-traditional revenue sources and bring it forth in policy to better preserve Evanston’s long-term financial security.
“A big part of our job is policy,” Reiches said. “If we can set some policies into place that will live beyond us, that’s really important.”
Reiches also shared a similar sentiment with Rosinski regarding non-budgeted expenses. This is one of the chair’s big ticket goals that will be accomplished by creating a written policy for these unplanned expenditures. The timeline for this task is from July through September, according to Reiches’ presentation.
Re-evaluating expenses at or above either a $10,000 or 10% cost increase is another goal accompanied by reducing expenses for 2025.
“To quote my dad, ‘We can’t have everything we want, we can’t have everything,’” Reiches said. “We have to figure out what’s most important for the city.”
The committee will wrap up its year by establishing a long-term debt plan this November and December, according to the presentation. This will include a thorough evaluation of the city’s general obligation bond and enterprise fund debt as well as comparing it to other similar communities.
“We want to come up with a five-year and 10-year plan,” Reiches said. “We want to know what’s rolling off and what we have to roll on. We want to have a long-term plan so that we’re not always debating about it and know what is coming ahead.”
Evanston approved fully funding its police and fire pensions this summer. This initiative was unanimously approved by both the committee and City Council to ensure the city doesn’t accrue debt. Reiches would like to receive semi-annual reports on the issue that include actuarial reports beyond a staff memo, according to the presentation.
To keep up with the committee’s goals, residents can attend its meetings at 5 p.m. every second Tuesday of the month in the City Council chambers or watch its meetings on the city’s YouTube page.
Corey Schmidt is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.
