Peoria Mayor Rita Ali says the city needs to capitalize and build on its current strong financial position.
Peoria's overall revenues reached $282 million in 2022, and the city has exceeded revenue projections over the past two years.
In their latest monthly conversation, WCBU reporter Joe Deacon talks with Ali about Peoria's financial standing and how it can sustain momentum while continuing to cover necessary expenses.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and length.
In your State of the City speech, you stressed that the city is in good financial position right now, with the 2022 revenues exceeding $280 million and up 12% from the year before, and 2023 looking strong so far as well. How can the city use this fiscal prosperity to its advantage?
Mayor Rita Ali: We're in a solid position right now that gives us several years of fiscal certainty or a buffer for the time being. But during the time that we have right now, we have to make sure that we're sustaining this security - fiscal security - longer term. One way that we're able to do that is to use the surplus to pay down further on our pension unfunded liability. Also, we're looking to secure additional outside revenues, outside funding for the work that we do, for the projects – whether this infrastructure projects, like we're applying for EV (electric vehicle) infrastructure funding from the federal government. We're applying for broadband funding from the state of Illinois, the Illinois Connect program.
We're really being aggressive about applying for external funding to help leverage the funding that the city has, so we're not just relying on city funding for the things that we want and need to do. Yes, we're in a strong fiscal position. We're in a position of growth and prosperity, and we have to expand our businesses, attract more new businesses to the area, support the businesses that we have, so that we can secure our tax base.
You kind of touched on what my next question is: Since this strong financial position partly stems from COVID stimulus money and one-time grants, what is the plan for when this momentum cools? Any new programs will need continued funding to be sustained, and the pension obligations aren't going away. So to what extent does that stress the need to generate more and more tax revenue?
Ali: It definitely does, and now's the time for us to really do that in a very forceful way. We invested $1.4 million in RISE grants to 118 businesses, many of them were new businesses. And we want to help make sure that they're successful, that we're, they're able to sustain their business for the long term because small businesses is really the engine of our economy. So we want to make sure that we're conscious of that.
We've been entertaining, along with our partners at the Greater Peoria, EDC (Economic Development Council), some potential new businesses that are interested in Peoria, coming to Peoria and some of them are manufacturing businesses. Those types of investments in Peoria can help to support our fiscal position in the long term. So that's really what we have to do; we have to grow our businesses, (and) we have to grow our population to some degree in order to support the tax base.
In your speech, you touched a bit on Peoria making a commitment to technological advancements such as increased broadband infrastructure and – as you touched on already – more EV charging stations. What initiatives will the city pursue toward digital equity, smart city development and sustainability?
Ali: Sure, the EV infrastructure is part of that smart city development. We have to have that infrastructure, because even though a lot of the EVs, electric vehicles, seem unaffordable right now, that's going to change significantly; the average person will eventually have an EV or be able to afford an EV. So that grant from the Federal Highway Administration that we're applying for, $11 million, will help to provide fast-charging EV charging stations at really open and public spaces, like our parks, our schools, our city and county land, and parking areas, our community colleges. We partnered also with West Peoria and Peoria Heights on this initiative, and the Tri-County (Regional) Planning Commission. So that's part of smart city development; also our smart city lights is part of that, smart use of utilities. We are working with Distillery Labs on additional smart city opportunities and programs.
And also broadband infrastructure plays a big role in that.
Ali: Absolutely. Broadband, having broadband in equitable areas – for example, 61605, the South Side of Peoria is one of those areas; 61603 is another. They're more distressed areas where i3 Broadband doesn't have a presence, because they have to know that they're going to get their investment back. That's why these access and equity grants are provided, so the infrastructure can be built in these areas that either lack, have no access, or they have unequal or limited access to broadband. And I'm not just talking about internet access; I'm talking about real broadband that's more high speed, where you can access videos, learning materials at a fast speed and not at an unequal level.
Also in your speech, you touched on community development, specifically efforts to address housing insecurity and advance projects to help vulnerable residents. What are some of the ways for the city to assist those experiencing homelessness?
Ali: I'm just really excited about, the city has made investments. We've used our home funds to provide $600,000 to Phoenix Community Development Services to provide workforce services for the homeless as well as a housing assistance for the homeless. But this new project that the city supported Phoenix in, through the Illinois Housing Development Authority, it was for a 9% tax credit project to convert the old Methodist School of Nursing into permanent housing for families experiencing homelessness in Peoria. This is huge; it's a $24 million project, 55 units. We also have on the South Side, the new – potentially new – multifamily unit that was also approved by IHDA for a $15 million, multifamily 50-unit housing development project.
Peoria Heights is considering a two-year agreement at $300,000 annually for the Peoria Fire Department to handle their service calls. What are your thoughts on this possibility?
Ali: Well, we've always been available to work with our sister communities, our area communities, when needed for a major fire, for some type of assistance. I'm certainly open to that. We've done that with some other smaller communities, and Peoria Heights is a friendly community. Certainly, I'm friends with the mayor there (Mike Phelan) and we have a very good strong working relationship. So I think that the council will be very open to that proposal.
The city staff is working on a study of public parking in downtown Peoria, looking into usage, availability, cost and other factors. What are your thoughts on possible changes to downtown parking options?
Ali: Well, I'm open. There's some proposals for having no paid parking. The study continues; it's under development as we speak, and it won't be completed until the fall. So I think that we're going to be very open and optimistic about what comes back from staff that are conducting that study. It will take into consideration some of those recommendations about free parking. One thing that that we did do was eliminate back-in parking, hooray; I wasn't crazy about that. But that was one change that the council did already approve.
You talk about a possibility of free parking, but from a cost-effectiveness standpoint, would that be detrimental? Is that something that the city could even afford to do?
Ali: You know, I don't know. What we need to look at is: how much are we really raising revenues for on street parking right now? We have a limited a number of parking enforcement staff. At one time, the city had a lot of parking enforcement staff and gave out a lot of tickets. I don't really foresee that happening in the near future, in terms of additional staff and lots of additional tickets happening. So I just think that it's going to be a balance.
You talked a little bit in your speech as well and alluded to it already, but what more can Peoria do in regard to addressing infrastructure improvements?
Ali: We're looking at improving our sidewalks, especially in the older neighborhoods. We did get a grant before U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos left (office) for $2 million in sidewalks for the 61605 zip code area that has more limited sidewalks and more crumbling infrastructure there. But we also are applying sidewalk funding to south of McClure, the qualified census tract areas. I forget the amount, but it's a significant amount that we will be spending for improving or creating new sidewalks in those areas as well.
Peoria is currently observing its annual Great Neighbor Appreciation Week; it kicked off Saturday with a citywide cleanup event. Other events planned for later this week include a local business appreciation day and a downtown cleanup. What is the overall goal of this Great Neighbor Appreciation campaign?
Ali: One of the goals is to show the residents who are keeping their property up, to say thank you to them. So city staff, on two days – on Tuesday, as well as I think on Friday – they'll be handing out these door hangers that are “good job” door hangers to those neighbors who go above and beyond to maintain their yards and properties. It seems like a little thing, but to the recipients of these door hangers – like my mom, she expects one every year and if she doesn't get while she's wondering why, but she continues to get one because she takes good care of her yard.
But they're a big deal to say, “Thank you. We appreciate what you're doing,” and we want to encourage others to do the same. Also, local businesses, (city) staff will be showing appreciation to them for the great work that they do. The big cleanup downtown is going to happen Thursday, on (July) 13th, and volunteers are still encouraged to contact the city if they want to be a part of the focus areas.
At the upcoming meeting, the city council will consider a moratorium on issuing new tobacco licenses as a step toward controlling the number of vape shops in Peoria. Do you believe placing a cap on these types of businesses is necessary and in the city's best interest?
Ali: I'm really waiting to get more information on this. We won't take any action at the next meeting; it’s going to take a little bit longer than expected to get all the information that we need. So this may go into August before we're able to make some decision. But again, there are a lot of vape shops that are popping up. And we are getting feedback, as well as concerns from certain council members, that we're getting too many. So yes, there's a concern that too much of anything may not be good; too many taverns on each corner or too many vape shops in this case. Vaping is becoming very popular, but we don't want to be over-saturated. So I have concerns about being over-saturated with one type of business that some perceive as may be harmful to young people, especially.
What are some other key items on the city council agenda?
Ali: One of the major ones that's coming up is the $1.4 million in violence prevention funding. Last year, we issued $700,000 to several organizations that applied for funding for programming to reduce violence. This year, we're issuing $1.4 million to several organizations that have proposed projects and programs. So there's a list of organizations that are slated; they've been recommended by the Community Development Block Grant funding committee, who has done a careful review of all the applications. There's a rating process; so there's a score and the top applicants are recommended for funding. So I'm looking forward to the approval of that slate.
