Peoria Council Considers Budget Cuts

Peoria's City Council began the difficult task of trying to trim nearly $10 million from the city's budget Tuesday night.

The Council is going over a list of expenditures one by one.

In the biggest action of the night, council decided to formally put out a bid asking how many city employees would choose to retire early.

Some council members were concerned that the majority of the people seeking early retirement would come from certain departments, like police and fire.

"I believe it is legal to exclude some departments and not offer everybody a plan if we are genuinely concerned that all the takers are going to be from the public safety realm, said Councilwoman Barbara Van Auken.

"That is the difficulty I have because we're basing this whole concept on saving money, instead of providing service and that's the dilemma I am having," said Councilman Gary Sandburg.

The stipulations they passed are city employees have to worked for the city for more than ten years to qualify. And they capped the program at thirty people based on seniority.

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Each person would receive ten-thousand dollars over four years.

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The council also voted not to cut $300,000 in safety prevention education.

They also shifted $400,000 from the library fund to the city's general fund.

The Council wants to talk with the Civic Center Commission about getting additional revenue from there.

A two-percent tax on package liquor sales was removed from consideration.