Rialto, Museum Subsidy From Joliet Nears End

JOLIET, IL — Interim city manager Steve Jones said Joliet intends to stop giving financial subsidies to the Rialto Square Theatre and the Joliet Area Historical Museum starting next month. Last December, the Joliet City Council approved $475,000 for the Rialto and $275,000 for the downtown museum as part of the city's 2020 operating budget.

Then came the new coronavirus health crisis. All of Joliet's bars and sit-down restaurants were forced to stop serving guests. Joliet's two casinos, Harrah's and Hollywood, have remained shuttered since March 16, a loss of $1.4 million in monthly revenue for the city of Joliet.

Hundreds of small businesses that were deemed as non-essential by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker had to close their doors during the international health crisis.

City Finance Director Jim Ghedotte has predicted that Joliet's loss of revenue during the pandemic will leave the city facing a budget shortfall between $12 million and $20 million.

This week, Jones told Joliet Patch's editor that the city plans to eliminate the subsidies for the Rialto and the Joliet Area Historical Museum to chip away at the projected shortfall.

For many years, the city provided the Rialto with half of the subsidy at the start of the new year and the rest of the payment in July. The Rialto typically received $500,000 from Joliet, however, Rialto officials lowered this year's request by $25,000, citing last year's strong performance.

Joliet's decision to halt the Rialto's second payment would save city taxpayers $237,500. If Joliet does not fund the museum starting June 1, that could save the city another $145,000.

Jones previously told Patch he wants to implement a temporary salary reduction of around 4 percent for all city employees, including department heads, police officers and firefighter/paramedics starting in June and the pay cuts could stay in place for the rest of the year.

In the event that Congress authorizes a federal economic stimulus package to help local governments like Joliet, Jones said the city may not need to implement any salary cuts and the funding for the Rialto and Joliet Area Historical Museum could be restored.

"It's going to take some federal stimulus money for us to be in good financial shape by the end of the year," Jones told Patch on Wednesday.

By the end of May, Joliet will have gone two-and-a-half months without both of its casinos and hotels being open to guests, Jones said.

Both casinos draw several thousand visitors to Joliet every week.

On Thursday, Rialto Executive Director Val Devine told Joliet Patch that city officials notified her a couple weeks ago that the Rialto's second subsidy payment was in danger because of the city's financial hardships caused by the pandemic.

"Yes, of course, this impacts us," Devine said. "We would not be asking for the money if it wasn't something necessary, but it didn't come as any surprise. This entire process has been, whoever's at the bottom of the hill is the one who kind of gets stuck with what's left. The city's not making money from so many of their tax-generating revenues."

As for the Rialto, Devine said she is working with six other non-profit performing arts venues in Illinois to lobby state and federal elected officials to include them in a financial benefits package.

"We're hanging in there," Devine said.

Downtown Joliet's VenuWorks-managed Rialto Square Theatre is now hosting a “Quarantine Concerts” series every Friday from noon to 12:30 p.m. on its Barton Grande Theatre Pipe Organ. The concerts go through the end of May.

The Rialto is also hosting a dinner and quarantine concert featuring performer Alex Hoffer at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 21. For details of the $12 dinner special offered by Joliet's Bella Cucina Catering visit the Rialto website here.

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Joliet Diocese Plan To Reopen Churches Revealed
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