SECA COMMISSION SIMPLE AGENDA ITEM
ACTION REQUESTED:
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Receive an update on increasing the CY26 SECA Budget Allocation
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DEPARTMENT: Community Services
SUBMITTED BY: Miranda Barfuss, Community Grants Coordinator
Chairman Brodhead and staff met with the City Manager and Finance Director to discuss increasing the CY26 SECA Budget Allocation.
Per municipal code section 3-1-9: Food and Beverage Taxes: “Recovery of the City's costs attributable to the collection of the food and beverage tax shall first be distributed, thereafter, fifty percent (50%) of the taxes collected pursuant to the food and beverage tax imposed herein, up to a maximum of one million nine hundred thousand dollars ($1,900,000.00) a year shall be contributed to the Special Events and Community Arts (SECA) Grant Program which will increase annually beginning in 2019 at the lesser of a two-percent (2%) flat rate or the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, III.-Ind.-Wis. Consumer Price Index (CPI) rates”
The Finance Department provided an analysis (below) of the annual SECA cap using the codified annual increase versus using a true CPI inflation increase. The difference for 2025 is about $370,000, providing possible justification for a CY26 increase:
