PEORIA, Ill. – The Peoria Civic Center will receive much needed assistance after the Peoria City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to assist the entertainment venue with $4 million in working capital bonds.
The bond will be paid for by the city with hotel, restaurant, and amusement (HRA) taxes.
While HRA tax revenue was lower for the city than expected this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, City Manager Patrick Urich told the council that he expects the tax revenue to rebound in the coming years to pay for the bonds.
If HRA taxes don’t rebound enough to cover the bonds in coming years, Urich told the council that they would have to find another way to pay for them.
Council member John Kelly voiced his support for the issuance of the bonds.
“We’ve got HRA money to pay off this $4 million and whatever interest,” said Kelly. “This is a great financial opportunity for us to keep this gem of ours alive without having to find another $4 million in our rather dry well.”
Council member Sid Ruckriegel also voiced his support.
“This is not a Go-Fund-Me page,” said Ruckriegel. “What we’re doing is helping the debt issuance for [the Civic Center] to be able to survive.”
“There is no 2023 without 2022 and 2021.”
Civic Center General Manager Rik Edgar told WMBD’s “The Greg and Dan Show”, the HRA bonds will first allow them to pay local businesses that were owed money when the pandemic hit.
“And, then we’re going to start ramping back up. But, it will allow us to do some things proactively rather than reactively,” Edgar said.
The Peoria Civic Center’s annual maintenance projects, that have been put off due to the pandemic, can now begin, according to Edgar.
The Civic Center is working out a plan to ramp back up, thanks to the bond money.
“Eventually we want to get our staff back up to at least about a third of what our normal staff is, but it’s not going to happen over night. When we get back to business, staffing will be bumped up to levels to handle returning events,” Edgar said.
If federal assistance comes through in the coming months, it’s possible the city won’t have to issue the bonds to help the Civic Center at all, said Mayor Jim Ardis.
The city council then began discussions on what to do about the two fire engines that were cut earlier in the month, and multiple members voiced their support in issuing bonds to not cut the engines.
The council then went into executive session to discuss further. This story will be updated.
