The Finance and Personnel Committee met on Monday, April 27, 2026, at 5:30 PM in City Hall to review the March 2026 financial report, approve a batch of vouchers, and act on 13 resolutions. All items were approved unanimously.
Finance Director Harry presented year-to-date revenue and expenditure highlights. Key points included:
Alderman Solgado asked for clarification on the PPRT shortfall. Director Harry explained that the budget had already been reduced based on state and IML projections, but the reductions may not have been sufficient; monitoring will continue.
Alderman Toonenberg noted that utility tax appeared to have a large increase and requested further details, which the Director agreed to provide to the City Council.
Alderman Toong (or a different speaker) observed that Rockford Fire Department overtime was 24% over budget, while Police Department overtime was 14% under budget. Director Harry attributed the PD savings to successful hiring efforts reducing overtime exposure.
Alderman Toonenberg also noted that hotel/motel and package liquor taxes were down double digits, but restaurant taxes were up.
Welcome to the finance and personnel committee meeting held tonight, April 27th, 2026. Sir Clerk, could you please take the roll? There. Okay. Sure. Thank you. Our first item is the information only item. It is the fiscal or financial discussion for March 2026. Ms. Harry, if you're going to present us. Yes, yes, sir. Thank you. Go ahead. Yes. So year to date revenue through March. As you can see in the report, a couple of items to note. The first is use tax, which is significantly over budget year to date by about $53,000. Income tax over budget as well, about 12% or $450,000. Unfortunately offset by a significant underperformance and replacement tax or PPRT of $922,000. If you recall, that was a revenue source that we reduced significantly for the 2026 budget based on estimates that we received from the state and IML. It looks like that reduction has not been sufficient. So we'll continue to monitor PPRT performance as the year goes on. And they it they do not come evenly throughout the year. So there is a possibility that we could uh recover some of those losses. On the expense side, uh similar story, about eight percent under budget year to date on expenditures, which we would anticipate uh for the first part of the fiscal year as we're still paying, as we've uh recently wrapped up paying 2025 invoices and um getting firmly into the work of 2026. Uh on the CAP, we have a CAP sales tax uh first disbursement 16 and a half percent over budget, um, which is great news. Um in the redevelopment fund overall about four percent underperformance, and that's largely driven by package liquor and hotel motel tax and casino revenue is uh overestimate uh by about six percent year to date. Happy to answer any questions anyone has. Anyway, we have questions from Syrie. Alderman Solgado. Yeah, just real quick. Um the comment about the replacement tax. Yes, uh, can you uh brief uh re um say that because I I wasn't paying attention. Oh sure. So we uh we reduced that budget significantly for 2026 based on projections that we were receiving both from the state and the um IML puts together projections uh as this is a statewide revenue source. Um obviously that has that wasn't uh a big enough reduction, it appears, based on the first two disbursements we've received so far. So we'll continue to monitor it. It is uh dispersed in eight installments throughout the year. This is two of eight, and it's not eight equal disbursements, so there's still a chance that we could have some recovery. Um so I'm sorry, so um so you're saying we reduced it, but most likely we'll get to that number that we have. Well, we reduced it. So we're measuring performance against a budget that's already been reduced from historical numbers. So it appears that potentially the projection or the the recommendations we receive from IML and the state were not sufficient. Um, but it is still early in the fiscal year, 25% of the revenue in. Um I will obviously very closely monitor this and look for updates from the state or IML on how they project the year to end as as we move forward. Okay, please, please. Thank you. All of them. Thank you, Chairman. Um I think I noticed that the uh Rockford Fire had I think it was 24% over budgeted for overtime, and our PD was about 14% under budgeted, um, which is good.