Galesburg may let go several city staff as part of millions in cuts to next year’s budget.
Galesburg’s City Manager sent a letter to the more than a dozen employees who would be cut, including two from the police and three from the fire department.
The draft budget includes a total of 2.2 million dollars in cuts with about half of that coming from staff reductions.
7th Ward Alderman Jeremy Karlin said the city has made cuts to programs already, but it has reached a limit.
"Such that at, at this point we do not have a single capital project being funded out of out general fund. We've come to the point now that we can't cut any more programmatic matters out of our budget and we are left reducing staff," Karlin said.
He said the city’s budget is being put under pressure due to rising pension and healthcare costs, coupled with stagnating or even falling property tax revenue.
Karlin added that the council will have a work session this Friday to go over specific budget proposals.
