ROCK ISLAND COUNTY, Ill. (KWQC) – Public institutions and local government are on the brink of turmoil with their financial budgets and for different reasons. Some are looking to correct this problem by raising your taxes.
Rock Island County and the Rock-Island Milan School District are talking about the possibility of raising their tax levies. The county said it’s in a financial mess of their own making from past bad decisions.
The school district said it’s taking a proactive approach to possible legislation in the future that could freeze property taxes.
“It’s a tough situation, but something’s got to be done,” said Rock Island resident Bill Long.
Long said he’s a concerned citizen hoping the Rock Island County Board will cut expenses rather than just raise taxes.
“They made the mistakes and they had poor management as we’re referring to it now so they should be the ones to pay the price,” he said.
A governmental task force is looking at cutting down the board size and eliminating their pensions and healthcare benefits, but it would be a small savings in comparison to the $4.5 million debt the county faces.
“It’s also about good governance, not everything is dollars,” said county board member Drue Mielke. “It’s really the will of the people.”
There’s also a proposed 16% increase of the county portion of property taxes. That comes out to about $36 a year for property worth $100,000.
Mielke is against the increase.
“I see people fleeing Rock Island County for whatever reason,” he said. “I want to make people come back to Rock Island County. I don’t want to balance our deficit on the backs of tax payers because of bad past practices by past boards.”
Also in the county, the Rock Island-Milan School District is talking about raising their tax levy for much different reasons.
“We’ve already started talking about the potential to do a tax rate increase based on the fact that there might be some changes down the road from the Illinois State legislature in freezing property taxes,” said communications director for the district Holly Sparkman.
She said it’s undetermined what the increase could be, but this is a proactive approach to keep their revenue in check.
“It’s always in flux and our hands are tied when it comes to general state aid funding,” she said. “We really, really do rely heavily on property taxes because we’re so limited on our sources of revenue.”
The school’s board of education will vote on the increase on December 8th.
The Moline-Coal Valley School District is also proposing a tax levy increase.