News Flash

The Snow Emergency, including odd/even parking, is now canceled. 

Our Customer Service Center will be closed on Thursday, December 4, until 1 p.m. for training. If you need to make a payment on Thursday morning, please use our online portal at https://schedulepayment.com/cor or at any of the alternative methods listed online here: https://www.rockfordil.gov/544/Utility-Billing.

The Snow Emergency, including odd/even parking, is now canceled. 

On Monday, the Finance and Personnel Committee approved the 2026 budget, maintaining current property tax levels and lowering the General Fund by $2 million from last year. Despite a state-mandated $5 million increase in public safety pension payments over last year (bringing the total pension payments to $40.5 million this year), the overall budget is lower due to continued efforts to control costs and operate more efficiently. The budget will go to City Council for approval next week and includes several key initiatives and investments aimed at maintaining essential services and supporting community priorities.

Key Highlights

• Public Safety/Crime Reduction:  Continues funding enforcement, prevention and intervention efforts, contributing to nearly a 40% reduction in violent crime and a decline in youth-related offenses in recent years. 
• Property Taxes: Keeps City property taxes flat for the 13th consecutive year, saving Rockford homeowners an average of $321 annually.
• Rockford Promise: Allows local students to attend college tuition-free.
• General Fund Support from Casino: Includes annual revenue from the casino to support general fund expenses, including pension obligations and investments in police and fire stations. 
• Cannabis Fund: Redirects unspent Cannabis Fund reserves to the general fund to support a temporary increase in fire staffing as more firefighters than usual become eligible for retirement. This one-time increase allows for the continuation of the 2025 pilot program for an additional engine and ambulance, while preserving $850,000 for equity-focused, restorative justice, and community reinvestment grants.
• Community Programs: Supports initiatives that benefit all residents, including:

• Free Bus Rides: Provides Veterans, K-12 students, and individuals enrolled in post-secondary or adult GED/HSE programs free rides on RMTD buses.
• Lead Service Line Replacements: Continues replacing lead service lines at no direct cost to homeowners.
• Critical Home Repair Program: Funds repairs to homes owned by low- to moderate-income residents.
• Tree Removal Loan Program: Assists residents with limited resources in removing dead, dying or diseased trees from private property.

• Economic Development: Sets aside funding for economic development initiatives including a set aside for investment in high risk neighborhoods.
• Fights Blight: Invests in blighted home rehabilitation and new home ownership opportunities.
• Arts/Culture: Allocates money for arts and culture initiatives across the community.
• Public Safety Pensions: Includes the state-mandated public safety pension contribution of $40.5 million, up from $9.6 million in 2013 and $5 million more than last year’s payments.
• Infrastructure Investment: Maintains historic levels of investment throughout the community, including residential neighborhoods and thoroughfares.
• Internships: Funds internship and career development opportunities within the City of Rockford, including the Concrete Workforce Development Program.

Financial History In 2017, municipal finance experts warned that the City of Rockford could run out of money by 2021 and that Rockford residents had a relatively high tax burden. In response, the City partnered with the National Resource Network to review the budget line by line, identifying efficiencies and areas for improvement. A Financial Task Force, including residents, financial experts, business leaders, aldermen, and public employee union representatives, provided input. These efforts have enabled the City to pass eight balanced budgets, maintain flat property taxes and continue investing in both infrastructure and residents, while lessening the tax burden on residents.

Mayor’s Statement  “No budget is perfect. However, I think we can all agree that property taxes are already too high, which is why I am advocating not to increase them,” says Mayor Tom McNamara. “Our City has seen tremendous momentum - gaining national attention and renewed local pride - which reinforces our goal of making Rockford a place where residents and businesses can thrive. While tough decisions aren’t always popular, they are necessary to keep us on track and be responsible stewards of our finances.”

The City of Rockford is proud to announce it has been awarded the prestigious Triple Crown by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). This recognition is given to governments that receive all three of GFOA’s highest honors:

• Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting
• Distinguished Budget Presentation Award
• Popular Annual Financial Reporting Award

Achieving even one of these awards is a significant accomplishment, but earning all three puts the City in elite company. Fewer than 0.5% of all local governments nationwide have earned this distinction, with only about 350 cities and counties recognized at this level.

“This achievement reflects the incredible work of our Finance Department and the City team as a whole,” explains Mayor Tom McNamara. “It demonstrates our commitment to transparency, accountability and excellence in financial stewardship. Congratulations to everyone involved!”

In 2018, the National Resource Network (NRN) and the City of Rockford partnered to develop a seven-year financial plan, which focused on improving the City’s fiscal sustainability and economic competitiveness. As part of this work, NRN and the City prepared a Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy. NRN is led, in part, by Enterprise Advisors.

“In 2017, our revenue projections were bleak for the future,” says Mayor Tom McNamara. “We knew we needed experts to come in and assess our community, our finances and our neighborhoods.”

Enterprise looked at the condition of physical property in each neighborhood, and used various data points, including vacant properties, foreclosures, code violations and homeownership rates, to describe the general conditions of the built environment and what tools/interventions could be used to address issues for each neighborhood. The City then used that data to prioritize funding for direct involvement in property improvement; for investing in key partnerships that would bring overall improvements; and for advocating for needed policy and funding changes that would help our community improve and maintain our properties. Enterprise also looked at different data points that would describe strong neighborhoods, middle neighborhoods and emerging neighborhoods to produce the original study.

From 2018 to 2023, the City invested in key initiatives to improve housing and reduce vacancies. The establishment of the Northern Illinois Land Bank and the transition of the Winnebago County Trustee to Region 1 Planning Council provided critical tools to address foreclosures and vacant properties. Creating a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) in partnership with Rockford Local Development Corporation (RLDC) and private financial institutions to help revitalize homes, boosting homeownership while reducing code violations. Additionally, the City funded emergency furnace, weatherization and home rehab programs, along with the Critical Home Repair Program, leading to significant property improvements and fewer code violations.

Late last year, Enterprise analyzed our neighborhoods again. This time, most neighborhoods ranked as strong, showing that in the last five years the City positioned our neighborhoods to be ready for new construction and growth in value. (https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/974adb9666084252a0b0cb4c24be7951)

Key results from the study include:

• Economic Growth: Property values increased by 56% since 2017 creating wealth for property owners, violent crime fell by 34%, and thousands of new jobs were created.
• Strategic Planning: Rockford partnered with the National Resource Network (NRN), Enterprise Advisors, and others to develop a data-driven multi-year financial plan and Neighborhood Revitalization Typology.
• Infrastructure & Investment: The city leveraged federal and state funds to execute major capital improvements and created financial incentives to attract new residents and businesses.
• Community Development: Initiatives like the Rockford Promise program provide free college tuition for eligible students, while housing programs encourage new development and home rehabilitation.
• Future Focus: Rockford plans to continue economic development, expand housing supply, and maintain affordability while ensuring sustained community engagement and safety improvements.

“I’m thrilled we are trending in the right direction based on strategic decisions and initiatives,” says Mayor McNamara. “The next step in the process is to implement our Housing Strategy Framework. It includes action items like building on the success of the Land Bank by advocating for more state resources, investing in new residential housing, increasing funding for the CDFI and using the vacant property ordinance to get more vacant commercial properties back on the tax roll.” 

Due to this historic turnaround, Enterprise recently wrote an article about the City’s “improbable turnaround.” (https://www.enterprisecommunity.org/blog/improbable-turnaround)

The City of Rockford and the Rockford Mass Transit District announced that beginning February 1, 2025, any individual in the community enrolled in a local post-secondary education program or in a local adult General Educational Development (GED)/High School Equivalency (HSE) program will now be able to ride RMTD’s fixed route service for free.Individuals who have a valid student photo I.D. for the spring 2025 semester from any of the following local institutions: Rock Valley College (RVC), Rockford Career College (RCC), Rockford University, NIU Rockford, Judson, Rasmussen, U of I College of Medicine, OSF Nursing - can access the free ride program by simply showing their valid student photo I.D. when boarding a RMTD bus. For those individuals currently enrolled in adult GED/HSE programs offered by RVC, Rockford Public Schools (RPS) & Goodwill, as well as the Rockford Public Library Adult Online High School, RMTD will be coordinating with those providers to distribute free passes to their program participants.  The new free ride programs are being implemented in an effort to help reduce barriers to accessing educational and training opportunities in the community. In 2022, we implement Veteran and K-12 student free ride programs on the fixed route system.

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