The pandemic is going to cost Rock Island millions of dollars. Monday night, Finance Director Stephanie Masson reported on the possible impact of COVID-19 to the city council.
She now estimates Rock Island will lose about 3 million dollars in revenue for the general fund for all of 2020. And the biggest impact will be on the sales tax.
"17 per cent of our general fund revenues are related to sales tax, and we're expecting 1.3 million dollars loss in those areas. So of the 3 million, 1.3 million of that is expected to be related to sales tax."
And that overall loss of 3 million dollars works out to about 9 per cent of this year's general fund budget which supports police and fire departments, public works, and many other city offices and functions.
Masson also believes revenue from hotel and video gaming taxes will be hurt, and there could also be some impact on property tax collections. As a result, the city has frozen hiring, left some open positions un-filled, and asked departments to reduce their spending.
