Saint Charles budget workshop: staff details revenue, staffing, pensions and debt profile ahead of draft budget
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Summary
City staff presented a five‑year view of revenues and expenditures, staffing levels and long‑term obligations at the Jan. 26 budget workshop, highlighting rising personnel costs driven by police/fire pension contributions, an AA1 Moody's rating, and falling transfers out as older bond issuances are paid off.
At a Jan. 26 budget workshop, Saint Charles city staff walked council through the budget process, multi‑year revenue and expenditure trends, staffing levels and the city’s long‑term liabilities.
Bill opened the substantive presentation by laying out the calendar and next steps: two additional workshops in February, a draft budget by March 10 and Committee of the Whole discussion March 16, followed by a public hearing on April 6 and final budget approval on April 20.
Staff described five‑year general fund trends, noting that the city reports sales taxes, property taxes and a category of other revenues ("other revenues" shown as about $67,000,000 in the last fiscal year). Bill flagged that transfers out (debt service, equipment replacement and other transfers) have declined from prior years as older bond issuances were retired, freeing limited capacity in the general fund for other uses.
Personnel costs constituted the largest share of general fund spending; staff said personnel services account for roughly 70% of total costs across departments, and that police and fire budgets are particularly personnel‑heavy. Bill attributed a large portion of the recent one‑time increase in personnel costs to higher city contributions to police and fire pensions and a $1.8M increase in pension payments in the 2023–24 year. Asked about the pension funding horizon, staff stated the statutory target is to reach full funding by 2040.
On long‑term debt, staff noted the city’s Moody’s rating of AA1 and that general obligation debt has decreased from roughly $109M to about $82M since 2021. Staff emphasized that Moody’s and other rating agencies consider fund balances, long‑term liabilities and fixed‑cost ratios when assessing ratings. The presentation also described IEPA loans the city has used for water and sewer projects and the tradeoffs between issuing new debt and maintaining rating and liquidity.
Staff reviewed department budgets (city administration and communications, IT, HR, finance, police, fire, public works, community development and economic development), noted occasional year‑to‑year spikes tied to one‑time payouts, hires or contract work, and showed total authorized staffing in the mid‑200 FTEs (roughly 214–217 authorized FTE across funds).
Council and staff agreed to further workshops to examine capital projects, personnel compensation and operating budget details; staff will return with more detailed department narratives and explanations for any percentage anomalies in departmental charts. No final budget decisions were made at the Jan. 26 workshop.
Ending: Staff will prepare the draft budget for March 10 and present details at the Committee of the Whole on March 16 ahead of the April public hearing and final adoption.
