Unknown Speaker 0:00
Here we are the third week of the month in May, Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton on Ask the mayor. We're in the office again second month in a row so far so good. Thanks for having us. Really appreciate
Unknown Speaker 0:24
it. Good to see you again, Joe. And glad we can be together and space again.
Unknown Speaker 0:28
Nice peaceful Bloomington day beautiful weather. Summer is in Bloomington a little change. But still a lot going on cities always busy. Well,
Unknown Speaker 0:37
but you're right to the rhythm of the city changes when when I you closes and many students return home, the weather warms up. But the streets are usually a little quieter of people, though there's often a lot of work that gets going during the summer, too.
Unknown Speaker 0:51
So let's just get into probably the biggest news that's happened since we've last talk, the local option, the local option, income tax increase about 51% approved by city council. Now I assume there will still need to be a formality with the tax commission of the county to approve that. Is that correct?
Unknown Speaker 1:09
No. Actually, there does not need to be any other voting action by anyone else. There's a there's a back behind the scenes certification up to the state, if other jurisdictions could choose to vote on it. The three other jurisdictions, but they don't have to, and I'm not sure if they will,
Unknown Speaker 1:26
right. Because it doesn't matter. It's been passed by the majority.
Unknown Speaker 1:29
It has I wish they would vote on I think it'd be good for them to take a position on it publicly, but I'm not sure they will. But the the majority vote has been cast. And it will go into effect October one little lower rate
Unknown Speaker 1:41
than you proposed. Is this a happy medium for you? Are you okay with?
Unknown Speaker 1:45
Look, this is really important for our city. You know, Joe, I've talked about it for more than two years, actually the importance of new revenue to help support really new efforts on climate change on public safety, on inclusion on affordable housing on so many areas, it's going to be so important for our city to advance. It is a little less than I asked for, but it's fine. It was the democratic process working We'll make it work city council, I was really pleased that they debated they wrestled we worked very closely with them. And they ended up with a unanimous decision, which is not common in in difficult votes like this. So we're very, very proud of them. And I think the result will make our city a much better city.
Unknown Speaker 2:29
I think the next step that residents or taxpayers will really want to see is where's that money going. And so that's I assume going to be this next budgeting process.
Unknown Speaker 2:38
Yes, under the economic development, local income tax Ed lit, we actually produce a specific plan for all that money, which we'll be sharing with the budget process. It'll be in a separate account. So it will be the money will go into a separate account. And we'll get appropriated out of that account regularly. And I do like to remind people that you know, Joe, of the seven counties that touch six and us in Monroe County, we had the lowest local income tax rate for the last several years. And this move makes us only into the middle, that is three of the counties are still higher than us. They're three now lower than us. And it puts Monroe County right in the middle. And it will help us invest in transit system in Climate Action Plan Implementation in affordable housing, in public safety improvements that are essential, both equipment and staffing and actually all kinds of other city help. And it's really transformational. And it's really essential.
Unknown Speaker 3:37
And there are a lot of things that kind of pop out. You just listed a couple of them. I did want to bring up the east to west bus route. That was kind of a key talking point of funding. I think the number one thing that comes from that is it's what 15 minute, of course. Well, yeah, this is very early, and I get that but I think the questions I'm hearing is with Bloomington traffic and no direct corridor east to west, how does a 15 minute frequent bus work?
Unknown Speaker 4:08
Sure. And look, the first step a minute. Our Bloomington transit system is the highest per capita transit system in the state of Indiana. We're really proud of it. It serves many millions of people a year. This takes it to the next level. And transit is so important as we continue to grow as we continue to work on reducing our dependence on automobiles. And there's a major investment in the local income tax in transit. It's going to offer Sunday service. It's going to increase frequency of all the bus routes so that we're nothing's longer than 30 minutes. And then there's some exciting new things that that will take some strategic planning. So what we've done is outline it. One of them which we're very excited about is as you referenced an East West it's almost like a bus rapid transit, it's the closest thing, frequent buses, fewer stops so that it moves you frequently, once you get on the bus to, and running from the east side of the city to the west side of the city, maybe even beyond, it will really help people in those areas have great access to downtown and to the campus and to shopping and other things. And can, it can really change where people choose to live and how they can choose to get around on that line. So the transit system will be doing some strategic planning, some intense planning, they have to, they have to do a lot of public engagement on the details of that. But it really could be a very significant development in the city for the next decades.
Unknown Speaker 5:34
Is it something that could go as far as Ivy Tech to even though it's not in city limits?
Unknown Speaker 5:38
It could there's some discussion about that Bloomington transit is limited to the city limits. And there were a lot of good reasons for that right now. City residents pay taxes for it. Right now, property taxes, but they're those discussions could take us there.
Unknown Speaker 5:52
So you mentioned public safety. And of course, you know, we've done a lot of reporting on the police salaries and know that there's a proportion of that that will go for that. We've heard the fire department is in need of funding to the fire department now, though, isn't it? Is it fair to say a temporary location, the main downtown headquarters,
Unknown Speaker 6:10
I should mention about the buses and one other thing, which is of course Ivy Tech, may be annex that's the plan, and it's under. If it becomes annex, then it's very simple to extend the route. So I just wanted to clarify that. On the public safety issues, yes, the fire department since that downtown, headquarters and fire station got flooded last summer, they've been in temporary headquarters, and we need to find a better space for them. We're working on that intensively. Now. It's not easy to find downtown space like that. But we're looking similarly the police department really needs a better facility. And both of those are funded through the local income tax as well.
Unknown Speaker 6:49
Any future plans on both of those buildings? And what can be done with those in the future?
Unknown Speaker 6:53
Really good question, Joe. We probably if if we move from both of those, we probably will explore whether we dispose of them sell them to somebody to develop affordable housing are other items. We may look at other uses of that. But my expectation would be if we don't need them for police and fire headquarters, it's probably appropriate to consider shifting them to something else, and probably some to the private sector.
Unknown Speaker 7:22
One of the main reasons why I know that the fire department is going to be or is a temporary position because that's the future of what could be the convention center. It could be a hotel, we don't know yet. So and this is something we've talked about the last few months too. But it seems like it's I'm starting to hear more buzz about it and newspaper media. Monroe County $12 million has been collected from the food and beverage tax. People are is now we're starting to get worried. Where's that money going? Anything that you can update everyone with on this?
Unknown Speaker 7:53
I think what you said is accurate. Joe, you know, I've been a strong and long advocate for an expansion of the downtown Convention Center. I think it's really important for our downtown, it's really important for the city's prosperity and all the restaurants and arts and all the scene downtown is helped by more activity and we have people who want to be here. So obviously, the pandemic changed that for a period of time we've kind of we're looking at of that now coming back the food and beverage tax has rebounded because it did go down during the pandemic. We did use food and beverage money during the pandemic to help restaurants and other businesses survive. We used it as loan money to help get people through that. But those are getting repaid now. I'm hopeful that we'll be able to move this project forward. There's still some open questions, some discussion to go on. But I sure hope we can I think it's good for the city. So who
Unknown Speaker 8:43
or what entity will or should leave that processed back again?
Unknown Speaker 8:49
Well, it's going to be a collaborative thing. Joe, between city county private sector, like it was before, we had come close to some plans. And there are some architectural renderings, as you mentioned, for a really significant expansion. I think I hope those will get revived. It's going to take a fully collaborative effort among county, city and private sector.
Unknown Speaker 9:12
Let's just get a quick update. Probably not much to say you mentioned annexation is still in the works. And I know the city just filed a response to the one of the lawsuits. Anything new on the annexation process, or are we just in a holding pattern right
Unknown Speaker 9:28
now? Well, I'm sorry, it is in the court, but it is in the court and the courts are designed to resolve some of the issues. There are two tracks as you mentioned, one is really on areas one A and one B the big areas on the west side, which are really kind of a regular annexation review by a court to decide if it's appropriate or not. We hope that can get resolved relatively soon. The other litigation is on this constitutional question of the waivers which if it is to be resolved probably needs to make it way make its way to the to the Indiana Supreme Court which It takes a while last time we had to do that it took three and a half years. I regret that. But it's what we need to do to get it resolved. And once those borders are resolved, we can move forward with a lot of things, we can move forward with more development and voluntary annexation and extension of sewers and really important things like that.
Unknown Speaker 10:18
Ah, I have a question I wanted to get to before we go to Robert writes in he's curious if the mayor City Council are aware of or have reviewed sibling city, Pablo Altos, Palo Altos, to our free downtown parking protocol.
Unknown Speaker 10:33
You know, I haven't reviewed that it is part of our sibling city that will exchange information about that, you know, the parking, the paid parking downtown, which was really developed shortly before I became mayor, so seven, eight years ago, I think, was designed to deal with the pressures of parking, and trying to make sure we that people could go to restaurants and go shopping and those kinds of things. To help downtown. I think most people view it has helped downtown. But if Palo Alto has figured out a different way to do it, happy to learn and look thanks for the tip.
Unknown Speaker 11:08
Additionally, he wanted to ask about the current Park mobile app protocol of dictating a 12 hour parking event until an end a parking Event button is pushed. You other cities, including Indianapolis use the more standard count up from zero minutes protocol.
Unknown Speaker 11:24
It's a good question, Joe. I've used the app myself, though, I actually have to confess I tend to use quarters, I find it actually faster. But you know, to each his own, I probably shouldn't even admit that I still use coins. But I'll check into it. I know I think the design of that is basically to make sure you don't get a parking ticket. If you don't specify the length of time. If people forget, and they don't put a time limit on it to make sure you don't get a ticket. But it's a fair question. And I'll ask our parking people about why 12 hours as opposed to two hours or four hours or six or some other things like that.
Unknown Speaker 11:59
The city just issued a press release regarding moving forward with meridiem on providing the infrastructure, high speed internet. What's new, I believe is that there's a TIF district that wants to be developed in order to gain some tax money to be put into infrastructure for equity of the broadband. Is that correct? Or could you elaborate on that a
Unknown Speaker 12:20
little bit? Well, this is a big, big deal for the city, Joe. So the biggest news really was that meridiem stated publicly their plan to invest at least $50 million to build out a fiber network that will cover the whole city that will reach every resident, there may be some areas that are very difficult to get to but at least 85%. And we hope much more than that. And they intend as much as possible. And that means fiber to every premise. This was something we've been working on for years. It is privately invested. We are planning to put up to a million dollars in for digital equity to help make sure that low income households if you're on food stamps, or if you have free and reduced lunch, etc, that you can get very affordable and we hope free high speed internet 250 megabits up and down that's higher than most of us can get right now. But the and the market rate, we don't know the price yet it will be market price, but it will be a gigabit speed. This is something that is it's like electricity for the city. I mean, it's it's transformational in the long haul. As you mentioned there there may be an exploration there likely will be an explanation of a tax increment finance district for the price of the of that network. The property taxes are taxed unusually in Indiana as business personal property. legislature may get rid of that they're still looking at that, you know, but there may be a TIF approach to it in the weeks ahead. We also mentioned I know of interest you that there may be some other cities getting that including one that you talk to regularly Calum Colombo? Yeah, we expect to hear more details about that in the weeks ahead.
Unknown Speaker 13:57
So you mentioned that percent of the possibility of people being on this infrastructure for high speed internet, though there was an editorial in the Herald times. I don't know if you caught that a few weeks ago from a broadband expert that says 85% of Bloomington already does get internet. So how does this help? And how does this get to more people?
Unknown Speaker 14:19
So there's there are two several ways it's really important. Number one, it's gigabit speed, most of Bloomington cannot get gigabit speed. And this will be this is important already for some, but it's going to be more and more important for education and work from home and healthcare from home. And just as the modern world, our bandwidth needs increase. It also will actually help the whole 5g network in the city because they need backbone fiber everywhere those towers go. So that's helpful. The second thing and maybe it's hard. It's a little technical, but this is being built as infrastructure, not as a private system. Right now, when you get internet connectivity, the company that's giving you the internet connection is building the wire to your house. It's almost like if you ordered a package from Amazon, they had to have their own road to get to they don't they use the public roads just like the Postal Service or FedEx or anybody else, this will be a publicly available road to your house. So any internet service provider can sell you their product. Now, there's an exclusive period of a few years for the first internet service provider to get there, into the into the market, if you will, but it's being built as infrastructure. And that's really different. It's unusual anywhere in the country. But it's how we think digital infrastructure ought to be available. So if in the future, Joe, you have Internet Service Provider A and you don't like them, you can just switch to Internet Service Provider B, or C, it could be one of the local providers or others can use that same pipe, digital pipe to get your house.
Unknown Speaker 15:51
And then how does this help with low signup rates to because you could have that going right by your house, and it's still maybe not affordable?
Unknown Speaker 15:59
Well, so the affordability is huge. For most people who pay market rates, now this will be a competitive market product. And they'll get to pick which one they want. There is a special emphasis on digital equity, because we have do, we do have a lot of households who can't afford the price. It's expensive in America, our digital access compared to the world, and they can't afford it. And this program, actually one of the national experts says it will be the best digital equity program in the country that we will have here with 250, big speed up and down and a net free cost because it'd be $30 a month. And that's the federal subsidy that you can get thanks to the Biden Harris administration.
Unknown Speaker 16:41
Last question on this. So what about current Internet, like you just mentioned current Internet providers that already have the infrastructure down, so they don't really need this?
Unknown Speaker 16:50
Well, so it's interesting, Joe, what we find is current Internet providers tend to we kind of call cherry pick, they'll find a neighborhood that has high take rates off in high income neighborhoods, and they say we'll put fiber in your neighborhood because we think you can afford it, and you'll sell it, but they won't put it in neighborhoods that have less take up maybe less money. And they're harder than to serve if you don't do it all at once. So there are a few areas of the city that have fiber, and this will compete with them. But the thing is, those fiber providers will now be able to soon be able to use that fiber network in other neighborhoods to it's like, it's like not having private roads in your neighborhood. It's having public streets so that everybody can compete. And this really is like public access to you. It is like streets or like electricity for the future. You know, everybody's going to need digital connectivity. So it's really a big deal for Bloomington. We're excited about it. It's transformational for us. And it's really trendsetting, we hope for the country.
Unknown Speaker 17:52
Speaking of construction, is that time of year, isn't it? Lots of road construction. So beware,
Unknown Speaker 17:57
yes, be careful, be gentle with those who are out working, you know, as you know, with our rhythm Joe, when the students leave, and before they come back, whether it's for a football game or for classes, we do a lot to try to get it done when there's less traffic. And so there's we're in the midst of that Blitz, and that sprint right now for two or three months. So you'll see a lot going on. We do put out a release every Thursday. I think we try to let people know the changes. But thanks for your patience and enjoy the quieter streets and the improvements that will come.
Unknown Speaker 18:31
Any other last announcements, anything you'd like to say,
Unknown Speaker 18:36
Joe? I think we've covered we've been it's been a busy. It's been a busy period from cat and in the last 30 days Catlins $350 million investment to the local income tax passing to the broadband $50 million investment are three really transformational things for our city that are moving us in the right direction.
Unknown Speaker 18:53
Thank you. Thanks, Joe.
Here we are the third week of the month in May, Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton on Ask the mayor. We're in the office again second month in a row so far so good. Thanks for having us. Really appreciate
Unknown Speaker 0:24
it. Good to see you again, Joe. And glad we can be together and space again.
Unknown Speaker 0:28
Nice peaceful Bloomington day beautiful weather. Summer is in Bloomington a little change. But still a lot going on cities always busy. Well,
Unknown Speaker 0:37
but you're right to the rhythm of the city changes when when I you closes and many students return home, the weather warms up. But the streets are usually a little quieter of people, though there's often a lot of work that gets going during the summer, too.
Unknown Speaker 0:51
So let's just get into probably the biggest news that's happened since we've last talk, the local option, the local option, income tax increase about 51% approved by city council. Now I assume there will still need to be a formality with the tax commission of the county to approve that. Is that correct?
Unknown Speaker 1:09
No. Actually, there does not need to be any other voting action by anyone else. There's a there's a back behind the scenes certification up to the state, if other jurisdictions could choose to vote on it. The three other jurisdictions, but they don't have to, and I'm not sure if they will,
Unknown Speaker 1:26
right. Because it doesn't matter. It's been passed by the majority.
Unknown Speaker 1:29
It has I wish they would vote on I think it'd be good for them to take a position on it publicly, but I'm not sure they will. But the the majority vote has been cast. And it will go into effect October one little lower rate
Unknown Speaker 1:41
than you proposed. Is this a happy medium for you? Are you okay with?
Unknown Speaker 1:45
Look, this is really important for our city. You know, Joe, I've talked about it for more than two years, actually the importance of new revenue to help support really new efforts on climate change on public safety, on inclusion on affordable housing on so many areas, it's going to be so important for our city to advance. It is a little less than I asked for, but it's fine. It was the democratic process working We'll make it work city council, I was really pleased that they debated they wrestled we worked very closely with them. And they ended up with a unanimous decision, which is not common in in difficult votes like this. So we're very, very proud of them. And I think the result will make our city a much better city.
Unknown Speaker 2:29
I think the next step that residents or taxpayers will really want to see is where's that money going. And so that's I assume going to be this next budgeting process.
Unknown Speaker 2:38
Yes, under the economic development, local income tax Ed lit, we actually produce a specific plan for all that money, which we'll be sharing with the budget process. It'll be in a separate account. So it will be the money will go into a separate account. And we'll get appropriated out of that account regularly. And I do like to remind people that you know, Joe, of the seven counties that touch six and us in Monroe County, we had the lowest local income tax rate for the last several years. And this move makes us only into the middle, that is three of the counties are still higher than us. They're three now lower than us. And it puts Monroe County right in the middle. And it will help us invest in transit system in Climate Action Plan Implementation in affordable housing, in public safety improvements that are essential, both equipment and staffing and actually all kinds of other city help. And it's really transformational. And it's really essential.
Unknown Speaker 3:37
And there are a lot of things that kind of pop out. You just listed a couple of them. I did want to bring up the east to west bus route. That was kind of a key talking point of funding. I think the number one thing that comes from that is it's what 15 minute, of course. Well, yeah, this is very early, and I get that but I think the questions I'm hearing is with Bloomington traffic and no direct corridor east to west, how does a 15 minute frequent bus work?
Unknown Speaker 4:08
Sure. And look, the first step a minute. Our Bloomington transit system is the highest per capita transit system in the state of Indiana. We're really proud of it. It serves many millions of people a year. This takes it to the next level. And transit is so important as we continue to grow as we continue to work on reducing our dependence on automobiles. And there's a major investment in the local income tax in transit. It's going to offer Sunday service. It's going to increase frequency of all the bus routes so that we're nothing's longer than 30 minutes. And then there's some exciting new things that that will take some strategic planning. So what we've done is outline it. One of them which we're very excited about is as you referenced an East West it's almost like a bus rapid transit, it's the closest thing, frequent buses, fewer stops so that it moves you frequently, once you get on the bus to, and running from the east side of the city to the west side of the city, maybe even beyond, it will really help people in those areas have great access to downtown and to the campus and to shopping and other things. And can, it can really change where people choose to live and how they can choose to get around on that line. So the transit system will be doing some strategic planning, some intense planning, they have to, they have to do a lot of public engagement on the details of that. But it really could be a very significant development in the city for the next decades.
Unknown Speaker 5:34
Is it something that could go as far as Ivy Tech to even though it's not in city limits?
Unknown Speaker 5:38
It could there's some discussion about that Bloomington transit is limited to the city limits. And there were a lot of good reasons for that right now. City residents pay taxes for it. Right now, property taxes, but they're those discussions could take us there.
Unknown Speaker 5:52
So you mentioned public safety. And of course, you know, we've done a lot of reporting on the police salaries and know that there's a proportion of that that will go for that. We've heard the fire department is in need of funding to the fire department now, though, isn't it? Is it fair to say a temporary location, the main downtown headquarters,
Unknown Speaker 6:10
I should mention about the buses and one other thing, which is of course Ivy Tech, may be annex that's the plan, and it's under. If it becomes annex, then it's very simple to extend the route. So I just wanted to clarify that. On the public safety issues, yes, the fire department since that downtown, headquarters and fire station got flooded last summer, they've been in temporary headquarters, and we need to find a better space for them. We're working on that intensively. Now. It's not easy to find downtown space like that. But we're looking similarly the police department really needs a better facility. And both of those are funded through the local income tax as well.
Unknown Speaker 6:49
Any future plans on both of those buildings? And what can be done with those in the future?
Unknown Speaker 6:53
Really good question, Joe. We probably if if we move from both of those, we probably will explore whether we dispose of them sell them to somebody to develop affordable housing are other items. We may look at other uses of that. But my expectation would be if we don't need them for police and fire headquarters, it's probably appropriate to consider shifting them to something else, and probably some to the private sector.
Unknown Speaker 7:22
One of the main reasons why I know that the fire department is going to be or is a temporary position because that's the future of what could be the convention center. It could be a hotel, we don't know yet. So and this is something we've talked about the last few months too. But it seems like it's I'm starting to hear more buzz about it and newspaper media. Monroe County $12 million has been collected from the food and beverage tax. People are is now we're starting to get worried. Where's that money going? Anything that you can update everyone with on this?
Unknown Speaker 7:53
I think what you said is accurate. Joe, you know, I've been a strong and long advocate for an expansion of the downtown Convention Center. I think it's really important for our downtown, it's really important for the city's prosperity and all the restaurants and arts and all the scene downtown is helped by more activity and we have people who want to be here. So obviously, the pandemic changed that for a period of time we've kind of we're looking at of that now coming back the food and beverage tax has rebounded because it did go down during the pandemic. We did use food and beverage money during the pandemic to help restaurants and other businesses survive. We used it as loan money to help get people through that. But those are getting repaid now. I'm hopeful that we'll be able to move this project forward. There's still some open questions, some discussion to go on. But I sure hope we can I think it's good for the city. So who
Unknown Speaker 8:43
or what entity will or should leave that processed back again?
Unknown Speaker 8:49
Well, it's going to be a collaborative thing. Joe, between city county private sector, like it was before, we had come close to some plans. And there are some architectural renderings, as you mentioned, for a really significant expansion. I think I hope those will get revived. It's going to take a fully collaborative effort among county, city and private sector.
Unknown Speaker 9:12
Let's just get a quick update. Probably not much to say you mentioned annexation is still in the works. And I know the city just filed a response to the one of the lawsuits. Anything new on the annexation process, or are we just in a holding pattern right
Unknown Speaker 9:28
now? Well, I'm sorry, it is in the court, but it is in the court and the courts are designed to resolve some of the issues. There are two tracks as you mentioned, one is really on areas one A and one B the big areas on the west side, which are really kind of a regular annexation review by a court to decide if it's appropriate or not. We hope that can get resolved relatively soon. The other litigation is on this constitutional question of the waivers which if it is to be resolved probably needs to make it way make its way to the to the Indiana Supreme Court which It takes a while last time we had to do that it took three and a half years. I regret that. But it's what we need to do to get it resolved. And once those borders are resolved, we can move forward with a lot of things, we can move forward with more development and voluntary annexation and extension of sewers and really important things like that.
Unknown Speaker 10:18
Ah, I have a question I wanted to get to before we go to Robert writes in he's curious if the mayor City Council are aware of or have reviewed sibling city, Pablo Altos, Palo Altos, to our free downtown parking protocol.
Unknown Speaker 10:33
You know, I haven't reviewed that it is part of our sibling city that will exchange information about that, you know, the parking, the paid parking downtown, which was really developed shortly before I became mayor, so seven, eight years ago, I think, was designed to deal with the pressures of parking, and trying to make sure we that people could go to restaurants and go shopping and those kinds of things. To help downtown. I think most people view it has helped downtown. But if Palo Alto has figured out a different way to do it, happy to learn and look thanks for the tip.
Unknown Speaker 11:08
Additionally, he wanted to ask about the current Park mobile app protocol of dictating a 12 hour parking event until an end a parking Event button is pushed. You other cities, including Indianapolis use the more standard count up from zero minutes protocol.
Unknown Speaker 11:24
It's a good question, Joe. I've used the app myself, though, I actually have to confess I tend to use quarters, I find it actually faster. But you know, to each his own, I probably shouldn't even admit that I still use coins. But I'll check into it. I know I think the design of that is basically to make sure you don't get a parking ticket. If you don't specify the length of time. If people forget, and they don't put a time limit on it to make sure you don't get a ticket. But it's a fair question. And I'll ask our parking people about why 12 hours as opposed to two hours or four hours or six or some other things like that.
Unknown Speaker 11:59
The city just issued a press release regarding moving forward with meridiem on providing the infrastructure, high speed internet. What's new, I believe is that there's a TIF district that wants to be developed in order to gain some tax money to be put into infrastructure for equity of the broadband. Is that correct? Or could you elaborate on that a
Unknown Speaker 12:20
little bit? Well, this is a big, big deal for the city, Joe. So the biggest news really was that meridiem stated publicly their plan to invest at least $50 million to build out a fiber network that will cover the whole city that will reach every resident, there may be some areas that are very difficult to get to but at least 85%. And we hope much more than that. And they intend as much as possible. And that means fiber to every premise. This was something we've been working on for years. It is privately invested. We are planning to put up to a million dollars in for digital equity to help make sure that low income households if you're on food stamps, or if you have free and reduced lunch, etc, that you can get very affordable and we hope free high speed internet 250 megabits up and down that's higher than most of us can get right now. But the and the market rate, we don't know the price yet it will be market price, but it will be a gigabit speed. This is something that is it's like electricity for the city. I mean, it's it's transformational in the long haul. As you mentioned there there may be an exploration there likely will be an explanation of a tax increment finance district for the price of the of that network. The property taxes are taxed unusually in Indiana as business personal property. legislature may get rid of that they're still looking at that, you know, but there may be a TIF approach to it in the weeks ahead. We also mentioned I know of interest you that there may be some other cities getting that including one that you talk to regularly Calum Colombo? Yeah, we expect to hear more details about that in the weeks ahead.
Unknown Speaker 13:57
So you mentioned that percent of the possibility of people being on this infrastructure for high speed internet, though there was an editorial in the Herald times. I don't know if you caught that a few weeks ago from a broadband expert that says 85% of Bloomington already does get internet. So how does this help? And how does this get to more people?
Unknown Speaker 14:19
So there's there are two several ways it's really important. Number one, it's gigabit speed, most of Bloomington cannot get gigabit speed. And this will be this is important already for some, but it's going to be more and more important for education and work from home and healthcare from home. And just as the modern world, our bandwidth needs increase. It also will actually help the whole 5g network in the city because they need backbone fiber everywhere those towers go. So that's helpful. The second thing and maybe it's hard. It's a little technical, but this is being built as infrastructure, not as a private system. Right now, when you get internet connectivity, the company that's giving you the internet connection is building the wire to your house. It's almost like if you ordered a package from Amazon, they had to have their own road to get to they don't they use the public roads just like the Postal Service or FedEx or anybody else, this will be a publicly available road to your house. So any internet service provider can sell you their product. Now, there's an exclusive period of a few years for the first internet service provider to get there, into the into the market, if you will, but it's being built as infrastructure. And that's really different. It's unusual anywhere in the country. But it's how we think digital infrastructure ought to be available. So if in the future, Joe, you have Internet Service Provider A and you don't like them, you can just switch to Internet Service Provider B, or C, it could be one of the local providers or others can use that same pipe, digital pipe to get your house.
Unknown Speaker 15:51
And then how does this help with low signup rates to because you could have that going right by your house, and it's still maybe not affordable?
Unknown Speaker 15:59
Well, so the affordability is huge. For most people who pay market rates, now this will be a competitive market product. And they'll get to pick which one they want. There is a special emphasis on digital equity, because we have do, we do have a lot of households who can't afford the price. It's expensive in America, our digital access compared to the world, and they can't afford it. And this program, actually one of the national experts says it will be the best digital equity program in the country that we will have here with 250, big speed up and down and a net free cost because it'd be $30 a month. And that's the federal subsidy that you can get thanks to the Biden Harris administration.
Unknown Speaker 16:41
Last question on this. So what about current Internet, like you just mentioned current Internet providers that already have the infrastructure down, so they don't really need this?
Unknown Speaker 16:50
Well, so it's interesting, Joe, what we find is current Internet providers tend to we kind of call cherry pick, they'll find a neighborhood that has high take rates off in high income neighborhoods, and they say we'll put fiber in your neighborhood because we think you can afford it, and you'll sell it, but they won't put it in neighborhoods that have less take up maybe less money. And they're harder than to serve if you don't do it all at once. So there are a few areas of the city that have fiber, and this will compete with them. But the thing is, those fiber providers will now be able to soon be able to use that fiber network in other neighborhoods to it's like, it's like not having private roads in your neighborhood. It's having public streets so that everybody can compete. And this really is like public access to you. It is like streets or like electricity for the future. You know, everybody's going to need digital connectivity. So it's really a big deal for Bloomington. We're excited about it. It's transformational for us. And it's really trendsetting, we hope for the country.
Unknown Speaker 17:52
Speaking of construction, is that time of year, isn't it? Lots of road construction. So beware,
Unknown Speaker 17:57
yes, be careful, be gentle with those who are out working, you know, as you know, with our rhythm Joe, when the students leave, and before they come back, whether it's for a football game or for classes, we do a lot to try to get it done when there's less traffic. And so there's we're in the midst of that Blitz, and that sprint right now for two or three months. So you'll see a lot going on. We do put out a release every Thursday. I think we try to let people know the changes. But thanks for your patience and enjoy the quieter streets and the improvements that will come.
Unknown Speaker 18:31
Any other last announcements, anything you'd like to say,
Unknown Speaker 18:36
Joe? I think we've covered we've been it's been a busy. It's been a busy period from cat and in the last 30 days Catlins $350 million investment to the local income tax passing to the broadband $50 million investment are three really transformational things for our city that are moving us in the right direction.
Unknown Speaker 18:53
Thank you. Thanks, Joe.
