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TO: Mayor John Laesch
FROM: Stacey L. Peterson, Chief Financial Officer/ City Treasurer
DATE: November 13, 2025
SUBJECT:
An Ordinance Adopting an Annual Budget for the Fiscal Year Beginning January 1, 2026 and Ending December 31, 2026 in Lieu of Passage of an Appropriation Ordinance.
PURPOSE:
To obtain the City Council's approval of the attached ordinance that would, in turn, provide for the approval of the proposed 2026 City Budget.
BACKGROUND:
In Illinois, municipalities may conduct their financial operations under one of two alternative frameworks: an appropriations process (65 ILCS 5/8-2-9) or a budget process (65 ILCS 5/8-2-9.1 through 9.9). On November 9, 1999, the City Council approved Ordinance No. O99-096 that placed the city on the budget system of finance in lieu of the appropriations system beginning with the 2000 fiscal year.
DISCUSSION:
The Mayor released his proposed 2026 City Budget on October 15, 2025. The Finance Committee has met nine times during October and November to review the document. Representatives from city departments have appeared before the Finance Committee to provide additional information and answer questions on specific items of interest in the proposed 2026 City Budget.
Since the initial version of the proposed 2026 City Budget was released, the Finance Department has made a number of changes into the document at the request of the Finance Committee, the Mayor's Office, and/or department heads. These changes are detailed in Schedule 1 that is the second attachment to this memorandum. The third attachment to this memorandum details a number of carryovers from the 2025 budget to the 2026 budget that the department heads have requested.
Also attached to this memorandum is a "Budget Preparation Worksheet for Fiscal Year 2026." This document constitutes the currently proposed 2026 City Budget. The amounts in the 2026 Budget Preparation Worksheet reflect the amounts included in the initially proposed budg...
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