The gray cloud of the recession is hovering over the city of Quincy.
During the next fiscal year, the city looks to be $4.3 million in the red.
But it's not all bad news because the city has been working on plans to deal with the shortfall.
It's been proactive in setting up an early retirement program, making all city employees to take furlough days, and it's cut spending, just to name a few.
KHQA asked the Director of Administrative Services how the city got into this situation.
"We're being dealt a soft economy. We're no different than a lot of ocmmunities in the state of Illinois and the United States. We are now seeing the state of Illinois being as far behind as 90 to 120 days behind on payments," says Gary Sparks.
Sparks says everything is being looked at, including the number of fire stations the city has to the recycling program to a possible tax increase.
"As this continues to grow, I think the city council is going to have to decide if they want to provide the same level of service, or are there going to be deeper cuts into personnel," says Gary Sparks.
Sparks says the city council is looking at a tax increase.
A first reading was done this past Monday, and the council will probably vote on the issue after the first of the year.
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