Mayor Hamilton said this budget is designed to maintain city reserves of at 4 months of operating expenses as the pandemic continues.
(WFIU/WTIU News File)
The City of Bloomington kicked off its 2021 budget hearings Monday night with various departments giving presentations.
Mayor John Hamilton said this is his first unbalanced budget since being elected.
“In sum, we’re presenting a rainy day budget focused on maintaining basic operations and investing in our community’s recovery, in part by using prudent amounts of our surplus," Hamilton said.
Each department has been asked to set aside a portion of its budget for the mayor's "Recover Forward" initiative. This is a comprehensive plan for Bloomington to invest $8 million worth of reserves over the next 30 months to help combat against the financial challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
The city is proposing a $95 million budget for 2021, which is about $4 million less than the 2020 budget.
The 2021 proposed budget includes $95 million worth of funds that are broken down into the various categories pictured above. (Courtesy: City of Bloomington)
"This is primarily due to a decrease in the Food and Beverage Fund that was appropriated in the last budget," city controller Jeff Underwood said. "As that project is on hold, the revenues are down and we're not proposing any budget for that fund this year."
The one percent food and beverage tax was created in 2018 to help pay for the future expansion of the Monroe County Convention Center.
Community resident Daniel Bingham said he believes that shouldn’t be one of the city’s priorities within the next year anyways.
“We cannot going forward on the convention center with 60 to 100 million dollar price tags. It’s completely irresponsible," Bingham said.
City councilmember Isabel Piedmont-Smith said the budget recommendations made this week will only act as a guideline before the final budget is discussed in late September, and then approved in October.
"It’s really like a straw poll," Piedmont-Smith said. "It’s kind of just to take our temperature right now, but its’s not in any way binding or final.”
The hearings will continue Tuesday night when the Bloomington Police Department will be making its budget requests.
