BACK MATT RAPID REPLY

My Friends, Aurora's Budget coming out today for 2011, we are 18

million in the red, the Mayor and City Council wants to make cuts to
our public safety. If we are this bad off. Why do we add positions to
the city new economic development council that pay close to 100,000
a year?

We must look at cutting wasteful spending and paying lobbyist to do

the job of what the Alderman at Large should be doing for us in
Springfield.

We should have had our budget deliver to us on time, not late again.
We need the time to have a full examination of our budget, and not to
be forced down the throats of Aurora's citizens do to a time concern.

Matt Harrington
Candidate for Aurora's Alderman at Large
BACK MATT in 2011
Aurora budget expected by 5 p.m.
By Andre Salles asalles@stmedianetwork.com Nov 29, 2010 9:52PM

AURORA — The city’s long-delayed 2011 budget is expected today, officials said.

It’s been a long time coming, but the document is expected to be delivered to aldermen by 5 p.m.,
just making an end-of-November deadline officials set earlier this month. The reason for the
delay, according to Chief Management Officer Carie Anne Ergo, has to do with the precarious
nature of the city’s finances, and a desire not to cut services any more than necessary.

Aurora is facing a projected $18 million deficit next year, and Ergo said while there will be
significant cuts, city staff wanted to wait until a full picture of 2010 revenues could be seen. She
said the final piece of the puzzle was estimates of home values from all four counties that make
up Aurora. The last of those did not come in until Nov. 18. Ergo is aware that city ordinance
requires a budget to be delivered by Oct. 15, but said the staff didn’t have all the information
needed before that deadline.

After today, it will be in the hands of the aldermen, who routinely pass a balanced budget by Dec.
31, after a Finance Committee review. This is the second year in a row that window has been
smaller than usual. Last year, with the city facing a similar shortfall, the budget was delivered on
Nov. 24, and was approved by the council on time.

Alderman Mike Saville, 6th Ward, is the longest-serving member of the council. He said the
process was overhauled in 1997, but before that, it was typical for the city to go five months into a
year without a budget. In the last 13 years, this is the latest he’s seen a budget delivered. “I think
it’s a testament to the challenging economic times the city is facing,” Saville said.

Alderman Lynda Elmore, 10th Ward, serves on the finance committee, which will go over the
budget line by line. She said the committee will “do what is necessary to review the budget, and
will make all attempts to get it to the city council by the last meeting of the year,” which is
scheduled for Dec. 28.

But Alderman Stephanie Kifowit, 3rd Ward, wants the council to take its time, and suggested not
sweating the Dec. 31 deadline. She said having fewer than 30 days to review a budget this
important is “unacceptable,” and the city could move to an appropriations system, whereby staff
would ask the council for permission on nearly all expenses, until a budget is authorized.

Ergo said with a budget this lean, extra time will not be necessary. Very few line items have
increased, she said, and very few expenses outside of core operations have been included.

Talks are ongoing with all 10 of the unions that represent city workers. City leaders have asked
for a 10 percent reduction in wages across the board, concessions that are expected to minimize
layoffs, not prevent them.