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player ready...Aurora city officials presented a proposed draft of the city’s 2027 budget Tuesday that still saw a $4.3 million deficit in the general fund, down from an initial $14.3 million deficit projection in August.
The proposed budget includes the loss of 16 to 18 city positions due to budget cuts and realignment of priorities, said Aurora Mayor John Laesch. He said those cuts affect three departments, including the sustainability, development and economic opportunity departments.
“Being in a role and evaluating what’s working, what’s not working, what’s aligned with the mission,” he said of evaluating staffing cut decisions. “We’re still trying to figure out how to, what services or operations we can cut.”
Laesch’s administration has attributed the city’s financial strain to alleged structural issues from past years’ budgets, where the city has outspent its revenue for years but covered it up by funneling longterm funds into the general fund.
While Laesch said those longterm funds are much healthier and more replenished this year, he said balancing the general fund is getting harder because there is not much left to cut.
Last year’s budget included funding cuts and the loss of around 140 positions to address the alleged budget structural issues. Cuts this year, he said, might depend on the city’s willingness to generate new revenue or even raise taxes, although he said his administration aims to avoid raising property taxes.
“It’s just much harder to try and find anywhere else that we can cut without doing too much damage,” Laesch said. ” There might be a few [cuts] this year but there’s no way we can go that deep.”
The nearly $604 million proposed 2027 budget presented Tuesday is smaller than the roughly $688 million 2026 budget. Both budgets are far smaller than the 2025 budget — the city’s largest budget ever, at $759.6 million.
But compared to last year, city officials proposed spending more in general funds this year, bringing those expenditures to just over $269 million. The city’s 2027 general fund revenue comes in at nearly $265 million.
Funding priorities this year include stabilizing the city’s financial structure, strengthening the city’s water system, replacing lead lines, catching up on deferred maintenance and preserving public safety, according to Stacy Peterson, Aurora’s chief financial officer.
The proposed 2027 budget was prepared by the city’s finance department and presented to the finance committee Tuesday. The committee is set to hear department expenditure requests through Nov. 19.
The city’s budget public hearing is scheduled for Dec. 8, and city officials are set to decide on the 2027 tax levy by Dec. 15, according to Peterson’s Tuesday presentation.
“We are presenting a fiscally responsible budget, and we still need to make some hard decisions,” said Peterson Tuesday.
The city narrowed its projected deficit by nearly $10 million since August, she said, by tightening departmental budgets, purchasing fewer fire engines and police vehicles, finding other means to cover some costs such as historic preservation, and diverting some funds into the general fund.
As part of those decisions, city officials proposed moving some home rule sales tax revenue to the general fund. This funding was initially meant to go towards the capital fund and a fund meant for safety, health and public enhancement. But Peterson said reduced costs in those funds resulted in additional revenue that could be allocated towards the general fund.
City officials also proposed using a portion of the city’s new gaming revenue from the newly-opened Aurora Hollywood Casino resort to support the general fund, which officials said in September they opposed doing.
“Anytime we can avoid doing that we would like to,” Laesch said of the gaming revenue going to the general fund.
Other money maneuvers included the police department dedicating some of their asset forfeiture revenue to pay for some project requests, Laesch said.
Proposed 2027 spending
City officials said Tuesday that capital spending will go to a selective list of projects this year. Those include neighborhood street improvements, lead service line replacements, construction of a sound barrier on Orchard Road, the Broadway redevelopment corridor downtown, restoration of downtown parking decks, fiber optic expansion on the East side and rehabilitation of the New York Street bridge.
City officials also proposed using the city’s increase in gaming revenue to fund a number of projects this year, outside of the $2.5 million going to the city’s general fund.
Around $1.5 million was set aside for Aurora Civic Center Authority, funding that Laesch said he plans to ramp down over the next few years.
The Aurora Civic Center Authority owns the Paramount Theatre, the Copley Theatre, Paramount School of the Arts and North Island Center, plus it manages the city-owned RiverEdge Park and Stolp Island Theatre.
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The city passed a budget last year without previously-communicated financial support to the Aurora Civic Center Authority. That decision was met with controversy and concern, as ACCA has had its own financial struggles.
Gaming funding was also proposed to go to aldermanic ward funds, various community services programs such as the city’s warming shelter, parking deck maintenance, a city fiber utility fund and other projects.
That fiber utility fund is new to the city this year, and Laesch said it would go to the expansion and upgrade of the city’s fiber-optic network.
As for the general fund, over $111.8 was set aside for the police department, and around $71.1 million for the fire department, according to Peterson’s presentation Tuesday.
Just over $31 million was budgeted for public works and $15.6 million for information technology. Around $9 million was budgeted for the development services department, which Laesch said his administration over-cut last year.
Laesch said he is also concerned about the city’s law department, which was allocated the least in general funding this year, at around $2.3 million. He said the legal department has a backlog of requests, which he said affects city operations.
The finance, human resources and city clerk departments also presented their expenditure requests at the meeting.
The finance department proposed a budget of around $8.3 million, which represents a 10.5% increase from the 2026 original budget, said Peterson. These additional costs accounted for purchasing new tax and revenue software, the addition of a new water billing clerk and needed replacement of transceivers for water meter reading.
The human resources department also proposed a slight increase in spending this year to purchase a learning management system and upgrade an employee from a secretary to administrative assistant.
The clerk’s office, while seeing a significant increase in Freedom of Information Act requests to process, did not request an increase in funding.
The city’s clerk, Jennifer Stallings, said the department expects requesting more resources to handle FOIA requests, along with a project aiming to digitize city records, in future years.
The law department and other city departments are set to present their budget requests to the finance committee in the next few weeks, which will inform the committee’s proposed budget.
As those expenditures are decided, Laesch said his administration aims to figure out new revenue sources. One idea, said Laesch, is to implement a personal property lease tax, similiar to Chicago’s version that taxed leased property like cloud computing software and social media companies. But he said that depends on feedback from the city council.
“This is just one avenue we could use to help close the gap,” said Laesch about the tax.
As for staffing cuts, Laesch said the human resources department is already having “those conversations.” But specific details on the affected departments and positions will become more apparent as departments present their budget requests to the finance committee, he said.
The Aurora city council passed an employment severence package Tuesday night. Ald. Daniel Barreiro, 1st ward, and Ald. Shweta Baid, 10th ward, opposed the package, citing not enough information provided.