May 14th, 2008
All the pieces are starting to fall into place. We are preparing the stories, photos, videos and databases for the second piece of the project. This one will focus on where we are and where we’ve been on crime. We’ve even gone back to our newspaper archives and fished out front pages that have carried banner headlines of major crime stories. Do you remember “Rout at Dawn”?
We’re looking at gangs, the rise of heroin and how one neighborhood watch group is responding to an increase in crime. One of the databases we are creating will live way beyond the life of the project. We will be able to display the monthly figures on major crimes in Rockford, broken down by police beats. If you are a Rockford resident, you will be able to check to see how much crime is in your neighborhood, and whether it is going up or down.
May 14th, 2008
As part of Chuck Sweeney’s assignment of this project, we requested Rockford city audits back to 1980. I’m about 2 percent into the data and already one statistic jumped out at me.
In 1980, 48 percent of the city’s local tax revenue came from property taxes — $9,920,816 in property taxes out of $20,590,060 in total taxes collecte — and 45 percent of the taxes came from retail sale. So shoppers were almost equally supporting city services.
By 2005, the most recent data available, property owners now shoulder much more of the burden. In 2005, the city collected $83,796,845 in local taxes. Of that, $47,010,384 came from property taxes or 56 percent. The city brought in $23,378,788 in sales taxes or 28 percent.
Another interesting note, though of little relevance, is that Rockford Mayor Robert McGaw had a salary of $27,000 while police chief Del Peterson was being paid $40,238.
