A tiny change in property taxes, and a big budget deficit, are key features of next year's budget for East Moline. Monday night, aldermen approved a 43.3 million dollar budget for the fiscal year beginning January first.
City Administrator Doug Maxeiner says the council approved a large deficit for the coming year with the understanding that he would figure out how to fix it, and propose a balanced budget for the following year.
"What I told the city council is you didn't get into this structural debt position overnight, and it's not going to be fixed overnight. So there's going to be several systematic changes to services, to the way we operate here - it's going to take us a little time to find those solutions."
East Moline will use 1.9 million dollars of reserve funds to offset part of the deficit, but that will still leave the city out of balance by 1.7 million dollars more.
Maxeiner says next year's levy will go up just 2 per cent, and the property tax rate for the city will rise three-tenths of one per cent. For the owner of a 150,000 dollar home in East Moline, property taxes for the city will increase about 3 dollars.
