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City council members discuss reevaluation of convention center project

Monroe County Convention Center

The Monroe Convention Center (FILE PHOTO: WFIU/WTIU News)

Some Bloomington City Council members want to explore using food and beverage tax revenues for projects other than the Monroe Convention Center expansion.

The council held a work session Friday to discuss the project. Councilor Kate Rosenbarger called for the meeting.

She pointed to a 2023 bi-annual community survey showing just 18 percent of residents feel the convention center is “essential or very important.”

Read more: Convention center expansion project seeking hotelier, construction manager

By comparison, residents considered city-wide high-speed fiber installation (68 percent essential or very important), developing the Hopewell neighborhood (65 percent) and developing the Trades District (62 percent) more critical than the convention center.

“I think this needs to be looked at again, as to, is this a good idea for our city when our residents are very much saying they don't want it and that like it is a burden to taxpayers for the entire life of the of the convention center?” Rosenbarger said. “Economic development can and does happen in so many other ways, and that is the cost that can be funded by this tax.”

Rosenbarger was the only city council member to vote against an interlocal agreement for the project last month. She has suggested using food and beverage tax revenues on a project similar to the Monon South Freedom Trail, a proposed 57-mile trail between Mitchell and the Clark/Floyd County border.

Councilor Matt Flaherty said he’s concerned by the data Rosenbarger cited and is open to exploring other possibilities.

Read more: Bloomington seeks to eliminate fatal, serious crashes in city by 2039

But members of the county council are cautioning against abandoning the project.

County council member Trent Deckard said it would not be fair to taxpayers to change course after years of collecting on the tax.

“I don't know how in good conscience, I could return to the taxpayers of Monroe County and say, there's been a switch and there's a change,” Deckard said. “I don’t know how that tax would continue.”

Deckard and his fellow county councilors Geoff McKim and Jennifer Crossley all spoke against stalling or stopping the project.

City Council President Isabel Piedmont-Smith said she also opposes the idea.

“The tax was passed with the understanding it would go towards expanding the convention center, and there have been endless conversations about how best to do it and how to collaborate to get it done,” she said.

Read more: Bloomington City Council approves resolution for Gaza ceasefire

County officials also worry the state legislature will become involved again if the project further stalls.

Lawmakers passed a law last year that says the city's share of the tax revenues must be used for a convention center, conference center or related tourism or economic development projects.

If tax revenues aren’t spent before July 1, 2025, the tax will be voided.

The tax has collected about $22 million since 2018. The city's portion of the tax is about $17 million.

This story has been updated.

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