The Governor’s proposal would take another $2.42 million from Moline, Rock Island, and East Moline. The impact would be very serious for the citizens of these communities.

The $300 million that would be cut from local governments will not do much to help solve our State’s nearly $13 billion deficit. However, $300 million pulled away from local governments will be felt on Main Street. The re-allocation of these funds will impact personnel and services in localities all over the state. Local governments are at the core of the struggle during this recession and they are feeling the pain more than the Governor acknowledges.

Decisions by each City would need to be made as to how the Cities would respond to this budget crisis. However, to provide some idea of the potential impact in each community, some examples were provided. For example, to cover the $2.42 million loss, 37 firefighter positions could be cut in Moline, Rock Island, and East Moline. Or a total of 37 police officer positions could be cut in the three Cities. Another alternative would be to raise property taxes.

-In Moline, this could mean a 12.7 cent increase in the tax rate for a 7.4% increase in the property tax levy.

-In Rock Island, this could mean a 19.4 cent increase in the tax rate for an 8.2% increase in the property tax levy.

-In East Moline, this could mean an 18.75 cent increase in tax rate for a 10.19% increase in the property tax levy.

The State of Illinois has taken many years to find themselves in the depths of this financial crisis. The State needs to develop a plan to begin to address this problem by cutting expenses or raising revenues – not by taking $300 million from local governments in Illinois. This action merely pushes their financial problem off to other units of government and to our tax payers.

Some of our Cities’ biggest challenges are due to State imposed mandates. The best example is public employee pensions. The State mandates these pension programs and has enhanced benefits considerably for police and fire personnel over the past ten years. These actions, as well as underperforming investments, have led to increases in required contributions of about $2.4 million for these three Cities in just the past year. It is now ironic that at the very time cities are struggling to pay these mandated obligations, the Governor proposes to cut the local government share of the income tax.

Moline and East Moline have already passed their budgets for the year which covers the period when the Governor proposes to cut this funding, and Rock Island is slated for a final vote on March 22.  All three Cities have locked in their property tax levy in late 2009 as required by law. This reduction would take place beginning July 1, 2010 - in the middle of the budgets already in place - and not allow for a chance to plan for such a drastic reduction in revenue.

Finally, the proposed 1% income tax increase would result in not only the Cities taking a significant cut, but also giving up their portion of any increased revenue.

The Governor’s proposal would have a very negative impact on Rock Island, Moline, and East Moline and the Mayors are united in calling on the Governor, our legislators, and the legislative leaders in Springfield to oppose this proposal.