Members of the Peoria City Council got their first look Tuesday at proposed second-year revisions to the biennial budget, with overall capital spending set to increase by about $12 million.
The administration and council got the annual budget process started with a vote to receive and file the City of Peoria's updated financial outline, with a full presentation set for a special council meeting next Tuesday.
“This starts the 30-day clock that is required as part of state statute that we have the budget on file for 30 days,” said Finance Director Kyle Cratty.
The recommended 2027 revised budget puts expenses at close to $348 million while anticipated revenue is $338 million. Those represent respective increases of 7.3% and 4.2% from the biennial budget adopted last year.
Cratty said those figures require approximately $10 million in use of fund balance to even the ledger.
“That use of $10 million is heavily on necessary capital projects in our local motor fuel, state motor fuel, as well as stormwater [and] sewer,” he said. “We also are using some of our reserves out of our OPEB [Other Post-Employment Benefit] fund to help with some of our health insurance costs.”
Cratty said the proposed budget shows a slight General Fund surplus of revenue over expenses.
“We are actually anticipating next year also putting a little bit more reserves back into the general fund,” he said.
The full spending plan, which is available through the city’s website, shows operating expenses increasing 5.7%, with higher costs for pensions and healthcare.
With the exception of election day, the council will meet every Tuesday until the budget is finalized and adopted, holding special meetings on the alternate weeks from regular meetings. The public hearing is scheduled for Oct. 27.
“This is one of our biggest priorities as an elected body is to go through, this budget process. So this is not something that I take very lightly,” said council member Andre Allen.
“We want this to be a very engaged process as we go through the budget process. I just want to reiterate that in a spirit of transparency and engagement.”
