Calumet City Mayor presents $56 million budget for 2022
Calumet City Mayor Thaddeus Jones presented the city’s budget for Fiscal 2022 on Thursday, July 29. The Aldermen voted 5 to 1 in favor of the budget. This year’s budget is balanced. There is a more than $170,000 surplus. The budget was increased from $39 million to $56 million. Jones brought in almost $13 million in new revenue from the State of Illinois and the Federal government.
Jones credited the balanced budget to the work of the finance team, which includes City Treasurer Gerald Tarka, Alderman DeJuan Gardner and John Kasparek. “This is the first year we’ve had a balanced budget.
We have made structural changes in our local government, and we’ve brought more diversity. We are working more with the media,” Jones said. “We want to put an afterschool program in place for our kids and just move the city forward.”
According to Jones, there was a $2.8 million deficit inherited from the previous administration. The new administration closed those holes by working with the Treasurer and Finance Director. The deficit was decreased to $987,000, allowing the city to balance the budget and take some of the incoming revenue and cash flows for this year to pay off bills from last year.
With the budget balanced there are new programs for seniors, housing, and economic development. There’s also money in the budget for a new City Hall, snow removal for the seniors and a beautification project.
“We’re addressing the deficit that was here. We now have a balanced budget. Full Transparency, no tricks, no gimmicks, just a balanced budget,” Jones said.
Overtime was reduced in department like Public Works. The Expenditures for the Public Works depart were reduced by $300,000. Overtime in the Fire Department was reduced by $500,000, previously, the overtime was $1.3 million.
It was 26 people hired and appointed to fill the open positions in our city government. These positions included the Police Chief, Fire Chief, Accountant, Forensic Auditor, City Attorney, City Corporate Counsel, Director of Inspectional Services and Deputy Commissioners. There are still almost 68 unfilled positions within the city.
Looking ahead, there are plans to hire 15 additional police officers and 10 additional firefighters. There is a new IT department and in addition a IT Specialist position was created also a Chaplain position. There were 11 new positions created including a deputy commissioner positions created for Public Works Department.
Calumet City has requested $11 million from the State of Illinois. This money will be used as capital for technology and for the new City Hall. The goal for the new City Hall is to have a groundbreaking by the end of this year, with an open toward the earlier part of next year.
“This is a victory for the taxpayers of Calumet City. This is the first year there has been a balanced budget where the Aldermen can celebrate working together on one accord making sure we’re doing this for the benefit of Calumet City and nothing else,” Mayor Jones said.
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