Serious revenue questions hitting Quincy right at tax levy time

QUINCY — Once a month, the Quincy City Council gets an update on revenue collected by the city’s sales tax and home rule sales tax.

The addition of Target to Quincy’s retail landscape in August 2023 was expected to give a boost to those numbers, but in comparing receipts from 2023 to 2024, the jury is still out on how much that boost has been.

Sept. 2023 to Sept. 2024 shows a decline in sales tax revenue by $37,450.45 and home rule sales tax revenue by $2,152.

Sept. 2023 Sept. 2024

But a comparison of of the first nine months of 2023 to the first nine months do show an overall increase

Jan. — Sept. 2023   Jan. — Sept. 2024

Comptroller Sheri Ray said despite a September revenue number that was about $17,000 below was the city had anticipated in its budgeting process, the rest of the fiscal year is running about 2 percent ahead of last year’s revenue.

Alderman Mike Farha (R-4th Ward) who attended the meeting but sat in the audience for its duration, said the numbers were “not good, but it’s not that bad.”

“It’s about what we budgeted,” Ray said. “So our conservative budgeting thus far is on target.”

“You know what I always say,” Farha asked rhetorically. “We’ve got to quit spending some time. That’s what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to get around that.”

Muddy River News also requested Food and Beverage revenue figures matching the last two years to date and those revenue figures are flat and below what the city had anticipated.

The tax was implemented to boost the city’s economy via tourism and attracting new businesses. The city used $1 million from the fund to help close the deal to bring Target and the BET on Q committee has award hundreds of thousands of dollars to assist tourism-related events.

The Food and Beverage Tax is set to expire on April 30, about a month after the mayoral election, so the City Council and administration will have to decide if they are going to keep a relatively new revenue tax that started in May 2020.

But the State of Illinois has ended a 1 percent tax on groceries that takes effect in Jan. 2026, which will cost the city another $1 million annually, according to city estimates.

In other action, aldermen approved an amendment to the current tax levy ordinance proposal, which received its second reading Tuesday night.

While the move would increase the tax levy 12.77 percent and the tax rate 13.85 percent, it would not be enough to satisfy paying the full rate on police and fire pensions solely from the levy. That would require taking $2 million from the city’s general fund and depleting reserves to a point where more revenues will be needed.

The Quincy Public Library will be funded at its state mandated 15 cents per $100 EAV, but they had requested funding above that mark, which would also have to come from the general fund. Farha suggested spinning the library off on its own as a taxing body with a fully-elected board, but that move would require a referendum and that not be a quick process.

The levy gets its third and final reading for a vote next Monday, Dec. 23.

So next year, with either Troup or, potentially, a new mayor following the April 1 election and taking office roughly a month later, the city could choose to keep the Food and Beverage Tax as well as reinstate the Grocery Tax, then opt to dedicate those funds to essential services instead of random projects. Or it could levy a massive property tax increase, which no one seems to have the stomach for.

Or, as Farha put it, “quit spending” and make cuts to the budget.

Ray said this plan would increase taxes on a $150,000 home by about $60.

The amendment passed 11-2 with Aldermen Kelly Mays (R-5th Ward) and Ben Uzelac (D-7th Ward) opposing. Alderman Eric Entrup (R-1st Ward) was absent.