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Bloomington council questions city employee pay in 2023 budget

By Holden Abshier

Posted September 30, 2022

AFSCME Local 2487 members rally outside city hall Tuesday, August 30. (Devan Ridgway, WFIU/WTIU News)

Bloomington City Council is sending Mayor John Hamilton recommendations before approving the 2023 budget next month.

Tuesday served as the first reading and public hearing for the $129 million budget, which is up more than $22 million from 2022. Much of the increase is due to $16 million in additional revenue from the recent local income tax (LIT) hike.

Councilmember Dave Rollo has been the most outspoken for increasing employee base pay to keep pace with inflation.

“We really have to keep parity with cost of living, otherwise it’s essentially a pay cut,” Rollo said.

He said the proposed 5 percent increase for city employees is not enough, especially with new LIT revenue.

“Rather than have a transformative budget, I would like a budget that is fair and equitable to our city employees,” Rollo said.

AFSCME Local 2487 employees continued to urge council to not pass the budget until contract negotiations with city administration finish. As it stands, the proposed budget does not include any raise for these union employees. However, administration says it’s normal to not finish negotiations before budget adoption.

“There is nothing unusual, as I understand it, with respect to the timeline we’re dealing with now,” Bloomington Corporation Counsel Beth Cate said.

Instead, the administration will bring the final contract back with a salary appropriation sometime next year. At this time, council would need to identify funding for the increase.

Contract negotiations began in May and were paused after the city administration cancelled two meetings, the most recent around mid-August. The union spoke out during department budget hearings at the end of August, encouraging the administration to return to the bargaining table.

The administration said Tuesday discussions with the union resumed, but it is unlikely to reach a final deal before budget adoption.

Bradley Rushton is president of AFSCME Local 2487 and questioned how the administration can prepare a budget without knowing all its costs.

“Who in their right mind would go out and buy a house and not budget for it first?” Rushton said. “Who could go buy a car or groceries or any facet you need without first budgeting for that?”

He said he is happy the Town of Ellettsville decided to use the local income tax revenue to increase each town employee base pay $10,000.

“[Bloomington] can’t afford to lose any more people, I don’t know how the city is going to function,” Rushton said.

Britt Shipley has worked for the city for 25 years and said he is actively looking for a new job.

“You all probably ought to have a plan B for winter, because you ain’t going to have enough people to plow your roads,” he said.

Council made a recommendation of 0-5-3 on the 2023 civil city budget, as proposed. Councilmembers Sue Sgambelluri, Isabel Piedmont-Smith, and Steve Volan abstained. This is not a final vote, but it indicates how members feel at the time. Several members said their “no” or abstention is due to unanswered questions or the need to see compromises.

Council is scheduled to adopt the budget Oct. 12 but will likely delay until later in the month. State law allows until Oct. 31.