Rock Island finance staff reports modest 2024 surplus, mixed first-quarter 2025 revenues

Jessica, a finance department staffer, told the Rock Island City Council at its study session that auditors reviewing the city’s 2024 books have given no reason to doubt an expected surplus of “just over $1,000,000,” which she said resulted largely from positions left unfilled across departments.

The presentation then moved to first-quarter 2025 results. Jessica said the benchmark for both revenues and expenditures is 25 percent for the quarter. She reported the general fund at 13 percent revenue and 19 percent expenditures for the period and noted that the first property-tax payment for 2025 is expected next month, which affects the general fund, the library fund and parks and recreation.

Jessica provided fund-by-fund highlights: special revenue (library) revenue at 2 percent and expenditures at 16 percent; combined TIF revenue at 2 percent and expenditures at 9 percent; gaming fund revenue near the benchmark at 24.6 percent with expenditures at 5 percent; the Street Improvement Fund reported revenue at 26 percent and expenditures at 1 percent. She said ARPA was budgeted at $4,500,000 for 2025 and that first-quarter ARPA expenditures totaled just under $147,000 (about 3 percent of that budget). The city received a combined total of just over $455,000 in investment interest in Q1, Jessica said, and staff expect interest rates to decline in the coming months.

On cash-flow timing, Jessica cautioned that some revenues and expenditures that post in January and February are accrued back to 2024, and that state payments (income and use taxes) are received in arrears, which affects how percentages appear in the Q1 tables. She invited council members to ask questions; no substantive follow-up was recorded in the study-session transcript.

The study session adjourned after public comment and before the regular council meeting.