Moline will probably lose millions of dollars due to the coronavirus but is strong enough to weather the storm. That was the message Monday from Moline Mayor Stephanie Acri during her State of the City Address - forced to be a virtual address because of the pandemic.
She says the big challenge will be to balance the city's services with the resources to pay for them.
"This isn't a time we should be increasing tax rates for our real estate or our sales tax. We're not going to do anything that is going to burden our residents or burden our small businesses and cause them to struggle in this recovery any more than they're already challenged to do. "
Finance Director Carol Barnes says Moline could lose between eight and ten million dollars during the pandemic, but it has a lot of reserve funds, and gets its revenue from a variety of sources.
"Currently the city has about 15 different major revenue streams that make up 60 per cent of the total revenue streams throughout the city. So if one particular revenue stream comes in a little slow one year or coming under budget, the other revenues are usually pretty solid and can carry that load."
Joining Mayor Acri and Barnes for the virtual state of the city address were Quad City Airport Executive Director Ben Leischner, Police Chief Darren Galt, Rachel Savage - the Superintendent of Schools, Corporate Counsel Dirk Price, and Public Works Director J.D. Schulte.
It's available on the city's website and Facebook page.
