This is a bad time of year to add something to the "to do" list. A lot of time is spent preparing the next fiscal budget (which begins May 1), and I neglected keeping up on this. Since it is budget making time, I thought it might be good to use this spot to talk a little bit about the budget for next year.
The local economy has remained steady judging by sales tax receipts coming into the City. That's not to say a few of our friends and neighbors haven't fallen victim to the nation's downturn, but we're certainly not in the situation many parts of the country are in. The City's largest problem is the revenues the State shares with us are down significantly and cities in Illinois are highly dependent on those revenues based on the way the State works. Combine that with required increases to the pension funds due to the losses on the investments and it's a serious 1-2 punch.
We're working hard to determine what to cut and how deep to make those cuts. Local government does so many things that are a part of your everyday life, that making cuts is difficult. Our budgets are also very labor heavy. Most of the expenses in the the police and fire departments are to pay for the police officers, firefighters and dispatchers that we count on. The majority of the funding in public works goes to the crews patching roads, plowing snow, cleaning up debris or to the lowest bidding contractors to repave roads. That's the VAST majority of the expenses paid for in taxes.
That gets back to why we always encourage people to shop locally. Sales tax makes up one of the largest revenues to the City, and it funds the General Fund, which funds things like the police department, fire department, public works, and road projects. If you buy the same item in Rockford or Moline, none of that sales tax makes it back to your own home community!
The other reason we encourage buying locally is it helps your friends and neighbors. The more we help each other out and the more we keep money flowing locally, the better off we can make our local community.
