Work begins Monday night on next year's budget for the Rock Island city council. City staff will present a proposed 117 million dollar spending plan.
City manager Randy Tweet says Rock Island is in good shape financially but must bring in some new revenue.
"In the past couple of years we made some temporary fixes in order to balance the budget and you can't continue to do that. At some point we need to make some type of permanent fix so in the future we don't run into a problem where we are in serious financial condition. That's our goal."
The proposed budget includes an increase of 9 per cent in the property tax rate, to 2-dollars and 60-cents per 1,000 dollars assessed value. For the owner of a 100,000 dollar home in the city, they would pay an additional 60 dollars per year.
Tweet says one problem for the city is the state of Illinois, reducing the revenue from various taxes it sends back to local governments.
"That amounted to about a 700,000 dollar reduction to expected revenue in 2017 and about a million less than we had expected in 2018."
Along with raising revenue, Tweet says the city will reduce spending - by eliminating 5 jobs, delaying some purchases, and delaying some infra-structure projects.
After several work sessions, final approval is expected next month.
