COVID-19 relief grants factored into proposed balanced 2022 budget for City of DeKalb

DeKALB – DeKalb city officials outlined this week several COVID-19 related relief grants awarded over the past year as the city council mulls over the 2022 proposed budget, which is balanced.

The DeKalb City Council and the city’s Financial Advisory Committee discussed the proposed budget during the two governing bodies’ combined meeting Monday at the DeKalb Public Library. All eight council members and five committee members were present during the meeting.

DeKalb City Manager Bill Nicklas said all of the city’s funds are balanced within the $200 million proposed budget.

“So those are all counted in the budget,” Nicklas said. “But all of the spending is balanced by sufficient revenues in each.”

Nicklas said hospitality and brick and mortar sales tax revenues, along with restaurant and bar tax revenues, were “severely tapped” in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, he said the city saw a notable increase in online sales tax revenue.

“We continue to be up, but not as dramatically so in relation to the previous fiscal year,” Nicklas said.

Nicklas said the city is expecting a modest increase in revenue going through 2022 in those categories.

While city officials said it’s too soon to start planning a special population census following the 3,572 decrease in population recorded in the 2020 census, Nicklas said the affected numbers may have impacted revenue as well.

[ DeKalb County drops 4K in overall population, per new U.S. Census data ]

According to city documents, grant funding of note for fiscal year 2022 includes a $2.7 million Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response, or SAFER, grant allocated in three payments in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

City officials originally applied for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency grant before the COVID-19 crisis in 2019 to help address shift staffing shortages, according to the documents. The city of DeKalb was one of four entities in the country to receive the full three-year grant allocation.

Nicklas also pointed to this year’s creation of Fund 110, thanks to the American Rescue Plan Act. He said the federal government allocated $10.4 million to the city, with $241,644 first being allocated to the Kishwaukee Water Reclamation District in July.

The Monday discussion comes after the City Council discussed the city’s proposed property tax levy – along with DeKalb Public Library expansion debt from 2013 still affecting city finances – during the council’s Oct. 25 meeting and Nov. 8 meeting.

The city plans to levy an amount that will save DeKalb homeowners with $300,000 market value property about $65 on the city portion of a 2021 property tax bill, city officials previously said. The library’s amount could see a homeowner increase of between $3 to $4.

The DeKalb area is expected to see a significant increase in property tax revenue on next year’s property tax bills: $74 million in new development, $59.1 million in tax increment finance money from the closing of the Central Area TIF, known as TIF 1, a 30-plus-year pool of money which has been growing and will return to the tax rolls this year, and an increase of $86.2 million in home values in the area.

The City Council’s next meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Nov. 22.