Hello, and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU I'm Joe Hren this week. We're in Bloomington with Mayor John Hamilton. Hello, and welcome.
Unknown Speaker
Good to be with you again. Joe. Thanks for doing this show.
Unknown Speaker
Don't forget you can submit your questions to news at Indiana public media.org. Or you can tweet us at Ask the mayor just have to start really quick reaction from the General Assembly Special Session near total abortion ban passed and the inflation relief bill. Do you have any comment on either of those?
Unknown Speaker
Well, I think I've talked a bit. I think it's important what has been done for reproductive rights. I think it's dangerous for our women and people who can become pregnant. I think it's damaging to our economy. I think it's a terrible step backwards for the state. So we're in the community here trying to process it. It's a shock. And very difficult. I was just with a bunch of undergraduates this morning, Joe, and it was on their mind. We know what's it what's the deal being here in Indiana, talking with Indiana University talking with other institutions. So I'm very hopeful that we're not done with this that we will continue to evaluate it. It's a it's a terrible step backward for Indiana. On the on the sharing of the funds. I do think the state has a very big surplus. I personally would wish that the state would invest more in public education, which is sorely needing more investment and maybe some more kind of programmatic funds, but I do think they have have haven't accepted too much surplus and need to invest it wisely.
Unknown Speaker
Is it too early to hear from commerce, business tourism on how the abortion ban bill could affect Bloomington?
Unknown Speaker
No, I don't think it's too early. I think we're starting to hear it. I'm starting to hear it. I was actually on the West Coast last week. And it was on the mind of people on the West Coast when they learned from Indiana. They're concerned about it and what it means. I think we've started to see more institutions, private sector institutions and others indicate concern about it. We have concern about it as an employer and as a recruiter. I think it's we're starting to see it already. What I deeply hope is that the legislature will listen to that and and improve our situation.
Unknown Speaker
Believe the big news locally and I've been covering the convention center expansion back in the news last month, you said Hang tight news is coming and it sure was we got to hear a proposal put forth to the two county leaders still kind of vague very early, I understand in that process. But a lot of it is asking the county to exchange assets, the center land to the city. There's some other opioid settlement money transit line to Ivy Tech, where did this proposal come from?
Unknown Speaker
You know, Joe, the county has a really big project in front of it. They've got criminal justice reform, which is long overdue, very complicated, it's going to need a lot of attention at the top levels of county government. We knew from a few years ago, the county didn't really have the same appetite for advancing the convention center that that we did in the city. It's right downtown. It's critically important to the vitality of our downtown economy and our community in the whole region. So we really this came from, I think frustration from the business community and others who are interested in seeing the convention center advanced, including me to say how can we kind of move this forward? Well, and this idea basically is let's let the city lead and operate the convention center which is in right our downtown. It's kind of in our wheelhouse economic development, tourism, sponsoring that and let's let the county lead and focus on the criminal justice reform which is right in their wheelhouse in their lane of activity. And I hope maybe we can advance both of those pretty challenging projects more effectively if we if we kind of approach it with that. Let's each focus on our lane of focus.
Unknown Speaker
And county council jam generally responded warm to it at that meeting. But the commissioners really have to sign off on it. I talked to Julie Thomas. She calls it insufficient and wonders why progress can't be made with the CIB, which is where it was kind of left off before the pandemic. Do you have any response to that?
Unknown Speaker
Well, I think we need to have dialogue. I think many members of county government view this as a as a really appropriate effort. Now, there's details to be lots of details to be worked out. But I think the concept of saying look this downtown center asset asset of the convention center, it may make some sense to let the city steer it lead it, we'd have a committee much like a CIB. But a CIB is constrained by state law in ways that may not make the most sense for us as a community. So look, I hope the dialogue will continue. I hope people will approach it with an open mind. I think we've got really strong support from Chamber of Commerce and the downtown business and the Convention and Visitors Bureau and those kinds of folks who, who know this business. So I'm hopeful, I'm encouraged. We hope there will be some good dialogue going forward. Because I think it's really important people, people Bloomington place for people to visit, we have 3 million visitors a year. We don't have as many during the week. And this convention center can strengthen our downtown by letting more people enjoy Bloomington kind of Monday to Friday. And we continue to do the really strong weekend work that we do.
Unknown Speaker
So what is the next step?
Unknown Speaker
I think the next step is county and city sitting down and talking in a room trying to identify are there barriers or their concerns or their ideas, and let's try to move it forward. Quickly. I hope that'll happen. We've reached out and I know many of the parties are ready to run and go forward with this. But we'll see if we can get everybody to the table.
Unknown Speaker
But there's been nothing scheduled in timeframe right now.
Unknown Speaker
I don't have a scheduled meeting. But I do expect in the next week or two we'll be sitting down together.
Unknown Speaker
Monroe County's local income tax rate increases October 1 It was passed back in may generate about $14.5 million dollars in annual revenue. Now we just talked to Mayor Bennett in Terre Haute and it's budget time there he had a lot of budget things to talk about. And I'm sure that's happening here too. Right.
Unknown Speaker
You know, Joe, this is a this is a pivot budget for us. I talked about that when we were doing the local income tax statistics a pivot point for the city. We've come through a pandemic, we're not completely through it, we've we've suffered to a recession, we now have very significant federal investments that are on the horizon for us. infrastructure bill, clean energy bill, the rescue plan Recovery Act. And we have now added our investment in that to let the city move forward, I'm going to be presenting a budget in a couple of weeks, that will be a new budget and a pivot budget. I'm really proud and excited about how we can move forward on sustainability, on climate, on transit, on housing, on a lot of fronts, including also just making sure as an employer, we're continuing to be a great place to work and every employer is facing pressure these days we are to, but I'm looking forward to working with the council to get a really strong budget passed for 2023. A
Unknown Speaker
lot of that money goes to what you just said you kind of you you broke it down. How do you what are the challenges? What are the challenges in bringing it out to city council.
Unknown Speaker
So it's kind of interesting in that the local income tax had a quite explicit list of its purposes. And when the council passed that, we made a commitment to say we're going to bring you a budget with those pieces in it. So for most of the lit really the vast majority of that 14 and a half million dollars, it's kind of earmarked for what is going to be in the budget. Now. There'll be some details to work out. But most of that's pretty well set and we're going to present a budget that includes all that because that's what the city council passed it for. Now, there are other parts of the budget, of course that are challenging and we continue to work to develop, I'll be presenting some new ideas, some cost saving and some new investments. But I am really pleased that Bloomington is kind of ready to step into the next chapter. From my perspective. We've, we've we've made it through the downturn. We're coming through the the pandemic and this community I believe is ready to invest in the future in a more sustainable city and a more inclusive city.
Unknown Speaker
Transit seeing a big increase, I believe, too. And I think part of that was that East West Express Route is something that people are going to see in the budget.
Unknown Speaker
So there will be nearly $4 million new funding locally into transit. That's a big deal. That's a major increase in their budget and having that much local money will really help us do significant new things and watch the future because I think it will also help us leverage more of that federal money to come in. So yes, it will be the plan. meaning will begin on a major new East West rapid bus line. That will be very important for the future of city. It will also allow us to do Sunday service and more frequent bus service, free service for seniors, we're also going to be investing in micro transit. Now, bus systems don't turn on a dime, right? I mean, buses, it's a big system. There's a lot of planning to be done. Those things have each their own timeline, but they will all be reflected in the 2023 budget. You
Unknown Speaker
know, we see the city proposal to pay off the convention center debt of about 2.2 million, and they also taking over CFC property over here for the headquarters. Where's all that money coming from? Is that from that lit increase? Well, it's
Unknown Speaker
different Joe, most of the if we do go forward with the showers purchase the CFC side of that, that will be focused on public safety. So that does get funded primarily by the by the equipment and facility side of the public safety, increase in the local income tax. So we look at different pieces for different things. If we go forward with the convention center, that's not a huge amount. That's the convention center is a big project. It's it's well north of $50 million. So that's a that's a little piece of what will be a stack of public funding to help make that happen.
Unknown Speaker
Looks like county commissioners found a site for a new county jail, it's not downtown. How do you feel about that?
Unknown Speaker
Well, you know, the criminal justice reform is very important. I toured the jail a few years ago, myself and it, it is a stain on our community, we need to have a better criminal justice system and facility. So I do encourage and support the reform and the renewal of that of that system, which includes the jail. Now, I will tell you, I do believe America incarcerates too many people. We are unique in the developed world in how many people we put behind bars. I think our community needs to be part of addressing that with many more services, mental health services, substance use disorder services, education and job training and intervention services that help us avoid the pipeline that seems to drive our prison population. So I strongly support a criminal justice reform that leans into those kinds of investments. I do believe that the criminal justice reform also probably needs to include a new facility because what we have is an adequate. I want to hold off on thinking about exactly where that should be. There's a lot of complicated challenges. It's not easy. We look forward to working with that. But I do want to make clear, we absolutely need to invest more as a community in those services that help our criminal justice system be more just be more equitable, and reduce the number of people who are incarcerated.
Unknown Speaker
Wow, it's crazy out there that time of year everyone's coming back. Some of the construction projects are done. I see 17th Street is Open message to new IU students coming back to Bloomington.
Unknown Speaker
Welcome to town. We love having you join our community. Drive carefully. If you're driving, it's often a crazy time. These these first couple of weeks of school but the town, the whole city lifts up and revives and gets active. It's a beautiful combination, the town and gown and I enjoyed every year. It's a rhythm that we experienced. And it's fun to see 1000s of new people enjoying Bloomington. I was with a few dozen of them this morning freshmen from all around the country and talking about what they can do in Bloomington and some of them already been to the farmers market. I could tell so we look forward to another great year ahead.
Unknown Speaker
That was all I had you have any announcements? Anything you'd like to say?
Unknown Speaker
No, Joe, I think I think we've got it covered. Thank you. Thanks a lot.
Unknown Speaker
Good to be with you again. Joe. Thanks for doing this show.
Unknown Speaker
Don't forget you can submit your questions to news at Indiana public media.org. Or you can tweet us at Ask the mayor just have to start really quick reaction from the General Assembly Special Session near total abortion ban passed and the inflation relief bill. Do you have any comment on either of those?
Unknown Speaker
Well, I think I've talked a bit. I think it's important what has been done for reproductive rights. I think it's dangerous for our women and people who can become pregnant. I think it's damaging to our economy. I think it's a terrible step backwards for the state. So we're in the community here trying to process it. It's a shock. And very difficult. I was just with a bunch of undergraduates this morning, Joe, and it was on their mind. We know what's it what's the deal being here in Indiana, talking with Indiana University talking with other institutions. So I'm very hopeful that we're not done with this that we will continue to evaluate it. It's a it's a terrible step backward for Indiana. On the on the sharing of the funds. I do think the state has a very big surplus. I personally would wish that the state would invest more in public education, which is sorely needing more investment and maybe some more kind of programmatic funds, but I do think they have have haven't accepted too much surplus and need to invest it wisely.
Unknown Speaker
Is it too early to hear from commerce, business tourism on how the abortion ban bill could affect Bloomington?
Unknown Speaker
No, I don't think it's too early. I think we're starting to hear it. I'm starting to hear it. I was actually on the West Coast last week. And it was on the mind of people on the West Coast when they learned from Indiana. They're concerned about it and what it means. I think we've started to see more institutions, private sector institutions and others indicate concern about it. We have concern about it as an employer and as a recruiter. I think it's we're starting to see it already. What I deeply hope is that the legislature will listen to that and and improve our situation.
Unknown Speaker
Believe the big news locally and I've been covering the convention center expansion back in the news last month, you said Hang tight news is coming and it sure was we got to hear a proposal put forth to the two county leaders still kind of vague very early, I understand in that process. But a lot of it is asking the county to exchange assets, the center land to the city. There's some other opioid settlement money transit line to Ivy Tech, where did this proposal come from?
Unknown Speaker
You know, Joe, the county has a really big project in front of it. They've got criminal justice reform, which is long overdue, very complicated, it's going to need a lot of attention at the top levels of county government. We knew from a few years ago, the county didn't really have the same appetite for advancing the convention center that that we did in the city. It's right downtown. It's critically important to the vitality of our downtown economy and our community in the whole region. So we really this came from, I think frustration from the business community and others who are interested in seeing the convention center advanced, including me to say how can we kind of move this forward? Well, and this idea basically is let's let the city lead and operate the convention center which is in right our downtown. It's kind of in our wheelhouse economic development, tourism, sponsoring that and let's let the county lead and focus on the criminal justice reform which is right in their wheelhouse in their lane of activity. And I hope maybe we can advance both of those pretty challenging projects more effectively if we if we kind of approach it with that. Let's each focus on our lane of focus.
Unknown Speaker
And county council jam generally responded warm to it at that meeting. But the commissioners really have to sign off on it. I talked to Julie Thomas. She calls it insufficient and wonders why progress can't be made with the CIB, which is where it was kind of left off before the pandemic. Do you have any response to that?
Unknown Speaker
Well, I think we need to have dialogue. I think many members of county government view this as a as a really appropriate effort. Now, there's details to be lots of details to be worked out. But I think the concept of saying look this downtown center asset asset of the convention center, it may make some sense to let the city steer it lead it, we'd have a committee much like a CIB. But a CIB is constrained by state law in ways that may not make the most sense for us as a community. So look, I hope the dialogue will continue. I hope people will approach it with an open mind. I think we've got really strong support from Chamber of Commerce and the downtown business and the Convention and Visitors Bureau and those kinds of folks who, who know this business. So I'm hopeful, I'm encouraged. We hope there will be some good dialogue going forward. Because I think it's really important people, people Bloomington place for people to visit, we have 3 million visitors a year. We don't have as many during the week. And this convention center can strengthen our downtown by letting more people enjoy Bloomington kind of Monday to Friday. And we continue to do the really strong weekend work that we do.
Unknown Speaker
So what is the next step?
Unknown Speaker
I think the next step is county and city sitting down and talking in a room trying to identify are there barriers or their concerns or their ideas, and let's try to move it forward. Quickly. I hope that'll happen. We've reached out and I know many of the parties are ready to run and go forward with this. But we'll see if we can get everybody to the table.
Unknown Speaker
But there's been nothing scheduled in timeframe right now.
Unknown Speaker
I don't have a scheduled meeting. But I do expect in the next week or two we'll be sitting down together.
Unknown Speaker
Monroe County's local income tax rate increases October 1 It was passed back in may generate about $14.5 million dollars in annual revenue. Now we just talked to Mayor Bennett in Terre Haute and it's budget time there he had a lot of budget things to talk about. And I'm sure that's happening here too. Right.
Unknown Speaker
You know, Joe, this is a this is a pivot budget for us. I talked about that when we were doing the local income tax statistics a pivot point for the city. We've come through a pandemic, we're not completely through it, we've we've suffered to a recession, we now have very significant federal investments that are on the horizon for us. infrastructure bill, clean energy bill, the rescue plan Recovery Act. And we have now added our investment in that to let the city move forward, I'm going to be presenting a budget in a couple of weeks, that will be a new budget and a pivot budget. I'm really proud and excited about how we can move forward on sustainability, on climate, on transit, on housing, on a lot of fronts, including also just making sure as an employer, we're continuing to be a great place to work and every employer is facing pressure these days we are to, but I'm looking forward to working with the council to get a really strong budget passed for 2023. A
Unknown Speaker
lot of that money goes to what you just said you kind of you you broke it down. How do you what are the challenges? What are the challenges in bringing it out to city council.
Unknown Speaker
So it's kind of interesting in that the local income tax had a quite explicit list of its purposes. And when the council passed that, we made a commitment to say we're going to bring you a budget with those pieces in it. So for most of the lit really the vast majority of that 14 and a half million dollars, it's kind of earmarked for what is going to be in the budget. Now. There'll be some details to work out. But most of that's pretty well set and we're going to present a budget that includes all that because that's what the city council passed it for. Now, there are other parts of the budget, of course that are challenging and we continue to work to develop, I'll be presenting some new ideas, some cost saving and some new investments. But I am really pleased that Bloomington is kind of ready to step into the next chapter. From my perspective. We've, we've we've made it through the downturn. We're coming through the the pandemic and this community I believe is ready to invest in the future in a more sustainable city and a more inclusive city.
Unknown Speaker
Transit seeing a big increase, I believe, too. And I think part of that was that East West Express Route is something that people are going to see in the budget.
Unknown Speaker
So there will be nearly $4 million new funding locally into transit. That's a big deal. That's a major increase in their budget and having that much local money will really help us do significant new things and watch the future because I think it will also help us leverage more of that federal money to come in. So yes, it will be the plan. meaning will begin on a major new East West rapid bus line. That will be very important for the future of city. It will also allow us to do Sunday service and more frequent bus service, free service for seniors, we're also going to be investing in micro transit. Now, bus systems don't turn on a dime, right? I mean, buses, it's a big system. There's a lot of planning to be done. Those things have each their own timeline, but they will all be reflected in the 2023 budget. You
Unknown Speaker
know, we see the city proposal to pay off the convention center debt of about 2.2 million, and they also taking over CFC property over here for the headquarters. Where's all that money coming from? Is that from that lit increase? Well, it's
Unknown Speaker
different Joe, most of the if we do go forward with the showers purchase the CFC side of that, that will be focused on public safety. So that does get funded primarily by the by the equipment and facility side of the public safety, increase in the local income tax. So we look at different pieces for different things. If we go forward with the convention center, that's not a huge amount. That's the convention center is a big project. It's it's well north of $50 million. So that's a that's a little piece of what will be a stack of public funding to help make that happen.
Unknown Speaker
Looks like county commissioners found a site for a new county jail, it's not downtown. How do you feel about that?
Unknown Speaker
Well, you know, the criminal justice reform is very important. I toured the jail a few years ago, myself and it, it is a stain on our community, we need to have a better criminal justice system and facility. So I do encourage and support the reform and the renewal of that of that system, which includes the jail. Now, I will tell you, I do believe America incarcerates too many people. We are unique in the developed world in how many people we put behind bars. I think our community needs to be part of addressing that with many more services, mental health services, substance use disorder services, education and job training and intervention services that help us avoid the pipeline that seems to drive our prison population. So I strongly support a criminal justice reform that leans into those kinds of investments. I do believe that the criminal justice reform also probably needs to include a new facility because what we have is an adequate. I want to hold off on thinking about exactly where that should be. There's a lot of complicated challenges. It's not easy. We look forward to working with that. But I do want to make clear, we absolutely need to invest more as a community in those services that help our criminal justice system be more just be more equitable, and reduce the number of people who are incarcerated.
Unknown Speaker
Wow, it's crazy out there that time of year everyone's coming back. Some of the construction projects are done. I see 17th Street is Open message to new IU students coming back to Bloomington.
Unknown Speaker
Welcome to town. We love having you join our community. Drive carefully. If you're driving, it's often a crazy time. These these first couple of weeks of school but the town, the whole city lifts up and revives and gets active. It's a beautiful combination, the town and gown and I enjoyed every year. It's a rhythm that we experienced. And it's fun to see 1000s of new people enjoying Bloomington. I was with a few dozen of them this morning freshmen from all around the country and talking about what they can do in Bloomington and some of them already been to the farmers market. I could tell so we look forward to another great year ahead.
Unknown Speaker
That was all I had you have any announcements? Anything you'd like to say?
Unknown Speaker
No, Joe, I think I think we've got it covered. Thank you. Thanks a lot.
