Excerpt from the Rockford Register Star
By Betsy Lopez Fritscher
RRSTAR.COM
Aug 20, 2010 @ 12:17 AM
BELVIDERE — Four months ago, Mayor Fred Brereton found a way to balance the city’s budget. Now he’s got a bigger challenge — fixing a $1.1 million hole in the same budget.
The majority of the financial woes stem from late state payments.
“It’s a combination of decreased revenues and the state of Illinois being four months behind on income tax,” Brereton said, noting the city has not received about $700,000.
The spending plan approved in April didn’t incorporate layoffs or service cuts, but the city did institute a hiring freeze and wage freezes for some employees. Some aldermen contended layoffs should have been an option, but the majority didn’t agree.
“What bailed us out was the utility tax, but that can’t bail us out again,” Racz, who voted for the tax’s use, said. “We can still reduce spending.”
When the City Council approved the $11.8 million budget on April 19, it left a $1.9 million hole to plug after aldermen failed to approve moving the city’s utility tax dollars to the general fund to pay salaries.
That was fixed in a 7-3 vote May 3 when aldermen amended the municipal code to allow all utility tax dollars to be permanently housed in the city’s general fund.
Alds. Clint Morris, Mark Sanderson and Ray Pendzinski opposed the freeing of tax dollars that would otherwise be used for road and infrastructure projects.
posted by Ken Dillenburg