Moline Committee-of-the-Whole Special Meeting on Special CIP Fund – September 24, 2025
Moline Committee-of-the-Whole Special Meeting on Special CIP Improvement Fund – September 24, 2025
Note: The agenda for this meeting lists the date as September 16, 2025, but the provided source material designates the meeting date as September 24, 2025. This summary uses the designated date.
This was a special Committee-of-the-Whole meeting convened to continue discussions on the Special Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) Fund for fiscal year 2026 and beyond. The Council reviewed revenue sources (franchise fees, property tax levy) and major expenditures (infrastructure, city hall renovation, central fire station, riverfront development). No formal votes were taken; staff were directed to provide additional analysis and scenarios for the upcoming budget workshop.
Franchise Fee Discussion
- The natural gas and electric franchise fee ordinance adopted in 2023 includes a 3% rate increase effective January 1, 2026. Therefore, no further Council action is needed at this time. The fee is projected to generate $1,846,000 in 2026, allowing the CIP to increase to $1 million (toward a strategic goal of $3 million).
- Alderperson Schmidt expressed concern, stating he did not recall the 3% increase in the original ordinance and requested time to review the minutes. Council acknowledged his request.
- The ordinance also contemplates future increases: 1% in 2028 and 1% in 2029, for a total of 5%. Several council members expressed interest in a scenario that does not assume these future increases, to avoid “false security.” Staff agreed to prepare a spreadsheet showing revenues at a constant 3% rate.
Property Tax Levy Discussion
- The administrative recommendation (Carol and Bob) is to maintain the levy rate at $1.7198 (the lowest in 35 years) to take advantage of assessed value growth of 5.92%. This would generate an additional $159,000 above the minimum needed to balance the budget, all going to the CIP fund, accumulating to $1.6 million over 10 years.
- Alderperson Schmidt (and others): Opposed capturing all of the growth, preferring to capture only 50% (or less). Schmidt argued that full capture combined with franchise fee increases would be unfair to residents. He stated he “won’t support an increase in capturing all the 50 percent of our growth.” Several council members echoed caution about the cumulative impact on residents.
- Council members asked for specific comparisons: minimum levy (reducing rate to $1.704, yielding $39 annual residential increase) vs. recommended levy ($44 annual increase). Staff agreed to provide a chart comparing the impact of the minimum and recommended levels on monthly and annual household costs, as well as historical data on cumulative impacts.
- Staff noted that even at the minimum levy, the city would still need a Truth in Taxation hearing because the increase would exceed 5%.
Expenditure Review – City Hall, Fire Station, and Riverfront
- City Hall Renovation (full-scale, $15 million): Bonding cost over 30 years would total $31 million (principal and interest). Option 2 (extensive maintenance, $8 million) with 15-year bonds would cost $17.5 million total. Staff recommended leaving the City Hall bonding out of the budget as a placeholder until interest rates are more certain, then amending.
- Central Fire Station Renovation ($25 million + $2 million for Station 2): Bonding over 30 years at 4.6% would total ~$50 million. Waiting a year could lower the rate. Details on Station 2 needs (structural, HVAC, ADA) were discussed; a tour was suggested for council members to visualize issues.
- Riverfront Development: $10 million placeholder over 10 years for public infrastructure (park, amphitheater, etc.). Staff noted grants may be limited; state and federal funding outlook is uncertain.
- Parks: No additional CIP funding needed; parks balanced their own budget.
- Staff highlighted that the 10-year plan includes $24 million in infrastructure projects (primarily road improvements driven by PCI scores) and $1.25 million annually for riverfront.
Key Outcomes
- No formal decisions were made. Council requested the following before the October 18 budget workshop:
- A spreadsheet showing franchise fee revenue assuming a constant 3% (not the 5% future increases).
- A comparison of property tax levy scenarios (minimum vs. recommended) with monthly/annual household impacts, plus historical context.
- Further analysis of City Hall and fire station bonding options, including potential interest rate changes.
- The meeting moved into executive session (5 ILCS 120/2(c)(5) and (c)(6)) for discussions on property acquisition and probable litigation.
- Public comment was moved earlier (no speakers).
Meeting Transcript
Good evening, everyone. I'll call our special meeting to work here in the media for all reference room at 6 p.m. Pledge of the weekend. Well, probably public person. Present presenting. We have no remote electronic attendance. We moved a public comment, learning public comment this week. Yeah. Okay. Questions on the agenda and no corrections. Um we move to our round table discussion. Special CIP improvement fund survey tests. Okay. Well, as you know, we have been slowly and radically progressing through all things budget. And uh trying to wind down to finalize the special CIP fund before we move our over budget workshop. So some of these things you'll be very familiar with, some of these things they need to do so much. Um I guess first things first. I'm just gonna turn it over to Carol so we can go through our natural gas electricity franchise fee discussion. Our recommendation will you go with that as Bob mentioned. This is a continuation of our July 15th round table as well as our August round table. And tonight we are hoping to kind of zero man on the revenue side primarily, and to have some guidance and come close to finalizing what some of those revenue streams are, as well as even one final look at the expenditures as we know them right now. And so the very first item we're gonna look at is the natural gas and electric fee. And as Bob and I are pulling out that ordinance to bring forward to you, as we've been discussing this last couple of meetings. We noticed that the ordinance that was approved back in 2023 actually includes a rate increase of three percent that is effective for January 1 and 26. So there's actually no action review. I have attached a copy of that resolution that over there and page two after the resolution for our forward on the bottom of that first page of the resolution if we see that the very last sentence it says three percent effective January 1 and 26, and so that's kind of where we're at with that franchise fee. So no further action is needed, and um the good thing is that fee, and I remember this now when we adopted it. If you pull out it's the third big spreadsheet in your room, it's back, third of all. And if you look down that home dictionary, there you will see that natural math and electric franchise. I highlighted it in yellow, one million eight hundred and forty-six thousand projected for 26. That is allowing us to go down to the pink row now, the number one pink down below. It'll be the first year that we were able to increase our CIP funding to a million dollars again. If you all know that was the strategic goal to be increasing our capital improvement funding from a million dollars up to three million dollars for the continuum period halfway there, and um I guess I guess the last thing to say is Mid America needs nine days to implement that fee, so we will plan to move forward and notification so that they can get that fee implemented on January 1st. Are there any questions on the franchise fee? As we work our way through this event. Um it was not my recollection that we passed the three percent meeting. I do apologize. I'm going back to the minutes, and so I would like to have a chance to review that even though this is not the time to review prior. So just I would like to return to this if I ask later. Yeah, there can be a period for more questions and conversation after presentation. Thank you. If you are still looking at the big spreadsheet, because I kind of wanted to address revenues from having the shoot as we move forward over the next five-year period, you will think we do have future consideration of increase in that franchise fee, another one percent in 28 and additional 11% in 29 up total total of five percent. And that to our recollection that is the legal limit um five percent franchise. That's a discussion for another meeting. Um that's just planning to build around with the function that we would be considering that's it possible for us to get another spreadsheet at some point that does not assume the foreign fund that keeps it more level at three. You know, we we we slowly ramped up to three, I believe here over two years, right? Um, and it could be the will of council that we don't actually get all the way to five. That's kind of like a false security in a sense of money coming in, and and I realize from now the way you've done budgeting for us with the three-year projections that every change we make in the current year we're looking at does impact the rest of it. So I think it just would be helpful. That's we could not do the full four and five percent.
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