What’s on the Town of Cicero’s 2022 Budget?
Source: Town of Cicero Annual Budget Document
By Irene Romulo
Before the regular board meeting on March 22, the Town of Cicero held a twenty minute public hearing on the 2022 appropriations. Annual appropriations set the amounts of money that can be legally spent by the different departments within the town. The annual budget has line by line items detailing how each department will spend the money. To view a full list of expenditures by each department click here.
The hearing was scheduled for 9:45 a.m., fifteen minutes before the regular board meeting usually starts. The hearing began at 9:54 with opening statements from
Finance Director David Gonzalez who gave a short overview of how funds will be spent this year.
Cicero Independiente requested the annual budget report on March 22. We received the 119 page report on March 29, one week after the appropriations ordinance was approved by the town board. You can view the entire document here and a summary here.
During the twenty-minute hearing Cicero Independiente and one member of the audience were able to ask a few questions during the presentation including about the $21 million in new ARPA federal dollars that the town will receive. This money will be going to the water department.
“Federal ARPA money is restricted,” Gonzalez responded during the hearing. “We can't use it for normal operating expenditures…so the plan with the engineers is to use that money to buy whatever we need when it comes to the water, to replace water mains, anything to stop the loss of water would also be helping the town as a whole.”
The police department will receive $1.6 million more dollars this year than in 2021 and the fire department’s budget was also increased by $1.2 million. During the hearing, Gonzalez explained that the majority of these increases are going towards pension funds for each department. When asked about these increases Gonzalez responded,
“The state did pass a mandate years ago that every town has to have the pensions 90% funded by 2040. So every year the actuary gives us the number we have to put in every year so that we can be 90% funded by 2040. We will probably see these pension amounts keep going up by about $600,000 every year. But currently right now, the annual contribution for fire is about $7 million and the police at $7,900,000.”
Elida Ortiz, a member of the public, expressed concern over the rising costs of water. Gonzalez had previously explained that the town expects to pay an increase of 5% in the costs of water purchased from the City of Chicago by June 1 of this year.
Lido Manetti from the water department explained that the town has not increased residents’ water costs in the last four years despite having to pay higher rates to the City of Chicago. Town President Larry Dominick said that if rates are raised for residents the town will send a letter out to inform of the change.
The town of Cicero has one General Fund which funds activities traditionally associated with government operations. The General Fund is used to pay for the expenses of 42 different departments listed below. To view a full list of expenditures by each department click here.
Additionally, the town has 16 special revenue funds used for specific purposes such as the Cicero Public Library Fund or the Youth Commission Fund.
What do you think about how the town chooses to allocate funds? Send us a message with your thoughts or questions to info@ciceroindependiente.com.
Irene Romulo is the development and community engagement coordinator at Cicero Independiente. She occasionally reports on local government and education.
Want to read more stories like this? Consider making a donation to support our work. Your money goes directly towards paying journalists of color to report on local news.
SUBSCRIBE
Bringing you news from the 60804
We respect your privacy and will only use your information to send you our latest posts.