Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Macomb Eyes Budget As Possible State Cuts Loom

Rich Egger
Macomb City Hall

Macomb's next budget year begins in less than a month (May 1) and the city is bracing for cuts in state funding. The city council plans to pass a balanced budget, despite Republican Governor Bruce Rauner's proposal to cut in half cities' share of the state income tax. That would mean a loss of more than $1 million for Macomb.

City Administrator Dean Torreson said that could lead to a reduction in  city services or personnel.

“We would probably have to decrease our workforce by eight, nine, or ten people,” Torreson said. “That’s really what it amounts to.”
 
Macomb has about 100 full time city employees. There has not been any public discussion yet regarding which positions might be eliminated.

Alderman Tom Koch has said layoffs are a possibility, although he would make a priority of preserving staffing levels for the city’s police and fire departments.

“We already have some overtime [in those departments] and if we lay somebody off it would just possibly increase our overtime by the amount of hours that man or woman worked and that would be more expensive than keeping them on,” Koch said.

Koch said the city will need to know how much state funding it will lose before making any decisions regarding layoffs.

Mayor Mike Inman plans to meet with Governor Bruce Rauner to discuss his proposed budget cuts in hopes of lessening its impact. The meeting will be held Thursday morning in Quincy. Other mayors will also attend.

Rauner has suggested one way municipalities could cope with budget cuts is by getting rid of project labor agreements for construction work.

Inman said there is a perception that municipalities overpay by about 20% for construction because of these agreements.
 
“We need to make [Rauner] aware of what his desires, how they actually impact municipalities,” Inman said. “We can’t do without contractual agreements with our workforce, they are part and parcel of what we do in our cities.”
 
Inman said the move would not save Macomb nearly enough to compensate for budget shortfalls. Any savings would benefit the infrastructure sales tax fund rather than the general fund. The general fund is the part of the city’s budget that pays for daily expenses and would be impacted by Rauner’s proposed cuts.
 
Governor Rauner will meet with members of the Illinois Municipal League in Springfield Thursday afternoon to discuss the budget.

Emily Boyer is a former reporter at Tri States Public Radio.