Rock Island Today

The Moline City Council recently held their second budget workshop meeting during the committee of the whole.

Following an all day Saturday workshop that the city held, there was an overview and discussion of the 2023 budget at the Nov. 1 city council meeting. Some of the highlights and clarifications to decisions made included the deferment of the $250,000 for downtown masterplan into 2025 and the pushback of the new fire station from 2023 into 2024, with bonding projected and construction estimated for 2026.

One of the suggestions made by the council was to put $100,000 into recruitment efforts and tactics for the city, both for training and new avenues of promoting for city positions. There are very low numbers in the police and fire departments as well as some other positions that HR is struggling to fill. The discussion included many board members who agreed with the sentiment, particularly with the police and fire. They debated the amount of funding and where the money would come from.

The council discussed their revised property tax levy for 2022, which ended with a total of $15,817,478 which reflected a reduction in new positions in the parks area. The levy will not exceed a 5% increase from the levy amount last year. The levy will be finalized in December and turned in to the county. 

"I did want to let you know we've got a calendar that is attached for you to look at, and we do need to proceed in keeping on target with all the council agenda items. But please know until we actually adopt the budget, which we've got scheduled now for Nov. 29. Even though we hold a hearing, even though we have first readings, we can continue to work on the budget. So we'd like to follow this plan and we will bring back these outstanding items that we got brought up tonight," Moline Director of Finance Carol Barnes said at the meeting.