The full Bloomington City Council gathered on April 30, 2025 for a special session.
(Donnie Burgess, WFIU/WTIU News)
Tracking government spending and improving processes are some of the top priorities for 2026 set by the Bloomington City Council.
In a special session Wednesday night, the council spent just over three hours fine-tuning a list of budget priorities it intends to send in a letter to the office of Mayor Kerry Thomson.
Councilmember Matt Flaherty introduced the idea of investing $200,000 in council staff resources, such as hiring contracted support with expertise in law, consulting, advising, and public engagement.
Some councilmembers questioned the dollar figure suggested by Flaherty, who clarified it was a ballpark number, and that his greater idea was to nail down a clear number that can be communicated to the mayor’s office. He hopes that clear, defined numbers would help avoid certain priorities being lost in the shuffle over time.
In council’s internal priority survey, several members listed things such as increasing food security, investing in non-policing community response teams, and continued support of Housing and Neighborhood Development (HAND) programs as top items to send to Mayor Thomson’s office.
Property tax reform under Senate Bill 1 cast a shadow over budget discussions as each councilmember recognized that any request they have may not materialize due to revenue losses.
City controller Jessica McClellan kicked off budget discussions by giving rough financial estimates of Senate Bill 1’s expected impact.
McClellan said property tax revenues will likely drop immediately. She also said Local Income Tax (LIT) revenues will fall by 2028 as new LIT rates will need to be set by council in 2027. Most forms of LIT, including Economic Development LIT, will be dropped, according to McClellan. One city LIT fund is expected to remain.
Finally, McClellan said Senate Bill 1 now limits the city’s ability to issue short-term (five years or less) bonds for projects. Those bonds (a type of loan) will also be subjected to a one-year “cool off period,” which means city council could not pass any short-term General Obligation (GO) bonds during that time. This will apply to any GO bond issued after May 1, 2025. Any short-term bond that has been active for two years or less will retroactively be affected by that “cool off” restriction.
Councilmember Dave Rollo referred to those changes under Senate Bill 1 in his final comments, where he voiced concern about the future of Bloomington Transit.
“They (Bloomington Transit) get about $2.6 million from state and they get $3.8 million from our LIT, which is going to go away,” Rollo said.
Christopher Emge, senior director of government and community relations for the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, said the council must produce goals that are truly attainable and actionable.
“We need return of investment,” Emge said. “This has to look like investments. I mean, you had a lot of good areas in there but some of them are just kind of Band-aids I think.”
Councilmembers decided not to vote on a final version of their budget priorities in favor of taking a few extra days to clarify which items should be emphasized to the Thomson administration.
