Budget: Make outsiders pay more?

Discussion of how to close the city's budget gap turned Thursday night to trying to get outsiders to pay more for city services.

At the 3rd, 4th and 9th Wards joint budget meeting a resident asked if it was possible to make certain public services, like Evanston Public Library, free only to Evanston residents.

"Can there be some fees charged for people who come in and use the services of the library that don't live here?" she asked, mentioning the computer lounge as an example.

Charging visitors more isn't a radically new idea.

Ald. Devon Reid (8th) has proposed hitting non-residents with a charge for parking at Evanston recreation centers — an idea city staff has estimated could raise $100,000 a year. But that idea has gotten a chilly reception from most alders so far.

The council did adopt Reid's proposal to charge non-residents $3 an hour to park on designated lakefront streets during the summer, while cars whose owners have paid the city's wheel tax can park there for free.

Reid says that new revenue stream has offset the cost of the move to make beach access free for city residents.

The city now charges nonresidents $12 a day to access city beaches . (Skokie residents pay $10, because Skokie offers Evanstonians a discount at the village's water park.)

But when it comes to preventing out-of-towners from using other public services, like EPL, other residents at Wednesday's meeting were quick to shoot it down.

One said they use Skokie and Wilmette libraries all the time for free, and cutting off free access for non-resident access to the library here just wouldn't be right.

Evanston's Chief Financial Officer Hitesh Desai said free public libraries are part of running a city and added that he couldn't think of a community that charges a fee for non-residents to enter.