November 18, 2005: Headlines: Figures: COS - Solomon Islands: City Government: Aurora Beacon News: Mayor Tom Weisner took his 2006 budget plan to the masses Thursday, telling some 300 local business leaders that "if Aurora is to prosper, it must invest in its future now"
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November 18, 2005: Headlines: Figures: COS - Solomon Islands: City Government: Aurora Beacon News: Mayor Tom Weisner took his 2006 budget plan to the masses Thursday, telling some 300 local business leaders that "if Aurora is to prosper, it must invest in its future now"
Mayor Tom Weisner took his 2006 budget plan to the masses Thursday, telling some 300 local business leaders that "if Aurora is to prosper, it must invest in its future now"
"What we do in our downtown today," he said, "will help set the course for the next 100 years in Aurora." Tom Weisner, elected mayor of Aurora, IL in 2005, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Solomon Islands.
Mayor Tom Weisner took his 2006 budget plan to the masses Thursday, telling some 300 local business leaders that "if Aurora is to prosper, it must invest in its future now"
Weisner takes budget push public
• $356 million plan: Mayor calls tax increase necessary to deal with 'Aurora's future'
By Ed Fanselow
staff writer
AURORA — Mayor Tom Weisner took his 2006 budget plan to the masses Thursday, telling some 300 local business leaders that "if Aurora is to prosper, it must invest in its future now."
The speech marked the first time Weisner has gone outside of City Hall looking to drum up public support for the $366 million proposal, which relies on borrowing and a 7 percent property tax increase to pay for a new police headquarters, downtown infrastructure improvements and a city-owned wireless-Internet network.
The tax increase, which would be the city's first in more than a decade, would cost the owner of a $250,000 home about $96 a year.
"This budget is not in the least bit flippant, ill-conceived or wasteful," Weisner told the crowd gathered for a Greater Aurora Chamber of Commerce luncheon. "It is a well-thought-out plan for Aurora's future.
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The mayor spent much of the 30-minute address focused on the technology upgrades, which he said will help close the so-called "digital divide" that has walled off the Internet to the city's poor.
"I know some people will say, 'Wow. Do we really need that?'" Weisner admitted.
"But this is not some far-off dream. This is today's reality. If we are going to compete in the future, we need to have a technology infrastructure in our city."
Weisner said the new technology — as well as a $50 million overhaul of the downtown water and sewer system — also would help lure new businesses to the area to "expand the tax base and lighten the tax burden on our homeowners."
"What we do in our downtown today," he said, "will help set the course for the next 100 years in Aurora."
In a departure from the speech's largely conciliatory tone, Weisner also appeared to lash out at his predecessors in the mayor's office over their inability to get a new police facility built.
He said that, although the facility is just 40 years old, it actually has seen more than 120 years of use because it is open three shifts a day, 365 days a year.
"We should not have put off this decision before," he said.
"We will have to sacrifice to make it happen, but I cannot minimize or ignore the need for a new police building any longer."
Weisner touted the achievements of his first 6-1/2 months in office, including the resuscitation of long-stalled land negotiations for the proposed Eola Road interchange with Interstate 88, the creation of a "development services team" at City Hall to help cut red tape for developers and the introduction of a series of town-hall-style meetings that began earlier this week.
He also boasted of the city's new $125,000 contract with the FranklinCovey Co., a consulting firm founded by 7 Habits of Highly Effective People author Stephen R. Covey.
The company will conduct a series of surveys and training seminars that Weisner said will help city employees become more effective in accomplishing city goals.
"As a city, we need to be a lot more like the private sector," he said, as the assemblage of businesspeople nodded in agreement. "The result of this will be a system of performance measurements and more accountability. Our residents deserve that."
11/18/05
When this story was posted in November 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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Story Source: Aurora Beacon News
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - Solomon Islands; City Government
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