WREX.com – Rockford’s News LeaderRockford would lose millions if Quinn's budget passes

Rockford would lose millions if Quinn's budget passes

By Katie Nilsson

ROCKFORD (WREX) - The City of Rockford stands to lose millions if Governor Pat Quinn's budget passes.

Part of the proposal cuts the amount of state income taxes that go to all municipalities.  It would go from 10% down to 7%.

Rockford gets a little more than $12 million in income taxes from the state, a three percentage point decrease amounts to about $3.5 million.  The money goes in to the city's general fund. City Administrator Jim Ryan says it pays for things like police and fire, and public works. "The general fund is comprised of property tax revenues, income tax revenues as well as retail sales tax, those are the big dollar amounts that we rely on to deliver basic city services."

Mayor Larry Morrissey talked about the financial issues Rockford faces last week in his "State of the City" address.  Another hit like this will force it to find new sources of revenue, like possibly adding a utility tax.  "It's going to be very difficult in terms of being able to make such a drastic cut when we're already faces with huge pension hits in 2011," says Ryan.

The city's has to find a way to pay about $3 million in pensions next year, its money Ryan says it doesn't have.  He thinks the state needs pension and collective bargaining reform if it's going to keep taking money away from cities that rely on it. "We need to be able to allocate our resources more efficiently and we can't have our hands tied behind our back with minimum manning issues, that so far through the Illinois Labor Relations Act, really hampers management's ability to deal with such a drastic economic change."

Mayor Morrissey went to Springfield on Wednesday to push for pension reform.