PEORIA, Ill. — The Peoria City Council is moving forward with how to amend the city’s budget.
Due to COVID-19, the city is facing a deficit of around $54 million.
City Manager Patrick Urich presented the council over video conference Tuesday four different areas council could look into to save funding.
“First and foremost, we can look at reducing our capital budget and look at our capital projects. Second, we can look at reducing our operating budget. Third we can look at borrowing and debt financing. Then, fourth we can look at are there other revenues that maybe the council might want to explore,” Urich said.
When it comes to deciding what the plan of action will be, councilman Sid Ruckriegel recommended that Urich presents the council with several scenarios next week.
“That would give us the information to be able to then talk about what the effects of all of these scenarios really would be,” Ruckrigel said.
The scenarios would include what would the budget look like with $5 million, $10 million, and $15 million reductions to the operation expenses.
“And, looking at what other kind of financing packages we can put in place to help us to provide that analysis for council,” Urich said.
One scenario would also be a revised budget that did not include any reductions in operating expenses.
Councilwoman Beth Jensen said multiple options should be looked into before reducing operating expenses.
“We should look into reducing or cutting operating expenses, laying off people, and cutting jobs has to be the last, absolute last resort,” Jensen said.
Several council members agreed that cutting jobs should be a last resort.
The council did not make any final decisions on the budget Tuesday night.
“We need to be mindful of how we are spending money. We need to be mindful of where we are spending money, and we need to be mindful of what the recovery may or may not look like,” Urich said.
The city is not under a strict guideline of when the revised budget needs to be completed.
Council members did approve to extend the declaration of local state of emergency.
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