The economic downturn has taken its toll on many cities in St. Clair County. With their fourth-quarter financial report from 2010 on its way to completion, the city of Riverside is no stranger to the financial problems plaguing many local cities.

Despite a slimmed-down budget for Fiscal Year 2011, the city of Riverside is facing a $15,000 general fund deficit from the fourth quarter of FY2010.  

The problem is the latest in a long history of financial struggles during the recession.

The city started with a $627,000 budget at the beginning of FY2010, but halfway through the year amended it to $540,000 to make up for a shortfall in income that’s still being seen today.

“We’ve had to incur almost a 50 percent hit in sales tax decreases in the last four years, which has really effected the way we’ve had to do business here in town,” Jessup said. “We’ve had lots of layoffs, and all we can do at this point is cross our fingers and hope we hit the bottom.”

This year’s budget was reduced to $492,000, to accommodate even further income shortfalls.  With multiple employees reduced in hours or cut altogether, as well as cuts to things like office supplies, telephones, training and travel, the city is hoping to stay afloat throughout the tempestuous year ahead.

Jessup said he’s confident the city will be able to stay within this year’s budget — but he felt the same about last year’s budget, as well.

“Last year, it was the same conversation — ‘The income’s not going to go any lower than this, we’re at the bottom.’ We’ve just gotten killed,” Jessup said. “What the killer is, we do everything we can to stay within our budget, but then we still come up short at the end of the year, because our income continues to decrease. That’s the frustrating part. We’re about out of things to cut.”

Should the revenue stream dry up even further, Jessup said the city will have to consider a hard set of cuts.

“The next things that we’d cut will hurt. We may have to get out of the building inspecting business. After that, you’d be talking about police officer cutbacks and fire department cutbacks, which is where no one wants to go.”