> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://bsquarebulletin.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Bloomington council votes down dispatch tax increase, absences seal defeat - URL: https://bsquarebulletin.com/bloomington-council-votes-down-dispatch-tax-increase-absences-seal-defeat/ - Published: 2026-10-27T09:48:54.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-27T09:48:54.000Z - Description: Bloomington’s city council voted 1–4 Monday on raising the dispatch local income tax, leaving Monroe County’s 2027 rate at 2.205%. With four members absent, the tally also completely blocked the countywide increase. Opponents cited affordability and available reserves among other reasons. - Author: Dave Askins - Tags: Local Government, #no-inline-feature ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/20/6f/206f9007-c0a7-47d4-b87b-686c21961f22/content/images/2026/10/2026-10-26-city-council-PXL_20261026_223553460.MP-1.jpg) From the left corner of the table: Bloomington city councilmembers Courtney Daily, Isabel Piedmont-Smith, Isak Asare, and Sydney Zulich; city clerk Nicole Bolden; council attorney Jake Rossman; interim council attorney Larry Allen; and chief deputy city clerk Sofia McDowell. The council held its special meeting in the McCloskey Room, because the council chambers were being used by the city’s transportation commission, which was holding its regular meeting. (Dave Askins, Oct. 26, 2026) Bloomington’s city council voted 1–4 Monday (Oct. 26) on the question of increasing the countywide income tax to bridge an 911 dispatch funding gap. The five who attended were the bare minimum needed for a quorum on the nine-member council. Even a 5–0 vote would not have supplied enough votes by itself to approve the increase. That’s based on the way population-based weights work on the countywide local income tax council, which includes the Monroe County council, the Ellettsville town council and the Steinsville town council. As it turned out, Isabel Piedmont-Smith cast the only vote in favor, despite a unanimous recommendation in August, from the countywide committee of the income tax council. The committee weighs in annually on the public safety local income tax (PS-LIT). This year, the PS-LIT committee membership was: Bloomington city councilmembers Isabel Piedmont-Smith (chair), Dave Rollo, Andy Ruff and Courtney Daily; Monroe County councilors Kate Wiltz and David Henry; Ellettsville representative Scott Oldham; and Stinesville representative Richard Carter (nonvoting). The four city councilmembers absent for Monday’s special meeting were Matt Flaherty, Kate Rosenbarger, Dave Rollo and Andy Ruff. Rollo and Ruff had served on the PS-LIT committee. Their absences made the defeat more consequential than an ordinary 1–4 council vote. The tally meant that there would not have been enough votes from the Monroe County councilors and Ellettsville town councilors combined to get to better than a 50% total weighting, even if they had taken votes on the question. The proposal would have raised the emergency dispatch portion of Monroe County’s local income tax from 0.0631% to 0.1%. Coupled with an increase [previously approved by the county council](https://bsquarebulletin.com/monroe-county-income-tax-rate-to-rise-to-2-205-in-2027/) for juvenile services, the county’s overall income tax rate would have risen from 2.14% this year to 2.2419% in 2027\. With Monday’s defeat, the rate will be set at 2.205%. In voting against the tax increase, Sydney Zulich said, “Times are tough for many folks, and I can’t, in good conscience, add to people’s bills.” --- For someone with $50,000 in annual taxable income, the rejected dispatch increase would have cost $18.45 more a year. For someone with $100,000, the additional cost would have been $36.90, or about 71 cents a week. The increase was projected to generate about $4.9 million annually for the unified emergency dispatch center, which handles calls for responders throughout Monroe County. That compares with an estimated $3.3 million in receipts at the existing dispatch rate, [leaving a roughly $1.5 million gap](https://bsquarebulletin.com/raise-taxes-or-tap-reserves-bloomington-council-weighs-911-dispatch-funding-gap-on-monday/ ) against the city’s $4.81 million 2027 dispatch budget. State law makes Monday’s tally a countywide obstacle, not merely a setback in Bloomington. Under [state law](https://iga.in.gov/laws/2026/ic/titles/6#6-3.6-3-6) the county’s local income tax council has 100 votes, allocated by population among Bloomington, Monroe County, Ellettsville and Stinesville. Bloomington controls about 56.7 votes, divided equally among its nine councilmembers. Indiana’s [state law](https://iga.in.gov/laws/2026/ic/titles/6#6-3.6-3-8) on such a tally requires absent members and those abstaining to be counted as no votes. So Monday’s four actual no votes and four absences amount to eight of Bloomington’s nine votes against the rate increase. That’s slightly more than 50 of the 100 countywide votes. Even unanimous support from the other member governments would not overcome that tally. With just five councilmembers attending, council attorney Larry Allen had said before the vote that it “would likely need county support” for passage even if everyone present supported the increase. Under [state law](https://iga.in.gov/laws/2026/ic/titles/6#6-3.6-3-3) there’s an Oct. 31 deadline for an increase to take effect as soon as Jan. 1, 2027\. An increase approved after that would not take effect until October 2027. City controller Geoff McKim opened his financial presentation by saying the immediate 2027 budget challenge has effectively been addressed, although the longer-term question remained. Specifically, Monroe County has appropriated $4 million to transfer to Bloomington next year, compared with the $4.81 million dispatch budget. McKim projected that the city could cover the difference from its own reserves, leaving about $188,000 by the end of 2027. Separately, the county now holds about $3.2 million in dispatch-tax reserves, projected to decline to around $2.5 million by the end of 2027\. McKim said his purpose Monday was to lay out the finances and choices, not to argue for a particular outcome. McKim said one reason to conserve reserves, by increasing the tax rate, is that equipment that was installed when the consolidated dispatch center opened about 12 years ago, is approaching the end of its useful life. Dispatch director Jarrod Bailey said at Monday’s meeting that radio equipment alone would cost about $2.3 million to replace at current prices. McKim had mentioned aging equipment in his August presentation to the PS-LIT committee, but Monday’s discussion supplied a more specific price tag. In addition, there is the approaching 2029 overhaul of Indiana’s income tax system, which will eliminate the current dedicated dispatch rate and force local governments to develop new funding arrangements. ### Why councilmembers voted they way they did The four councilmembers who were opposed to the tax increase offered different reasons for voting no. Sydney Zulich focused on affordability. “I can’t vote to raise taxes without being able to explain how people's lives are improving,” she said. Although the increase might seem small to some, Zulich said it matters to people trying to make every dollar stretch. “I am saying no to a tax increase,” she said, not to funding dispatch. Courtney Daily also said that taxpayers should not have to shoulder an additional cost while other funding options remain. “I think we have other ways of covering this, and that we should do that first,” she said. She added that Monday’s discussion had raised more questions than it answered. Hopi Stosberg said her objection was less about the $37 annual cost on $100,000 of taxable income than about the proposed funding method. Taken together, the city and county dispatch reserves would amount to more than half a year’s operating budget, she said. Large equipment purchases could instead be financed through general obligation bonds. “This particular tax increase is not the answer,” Stosberg said. Isak Asare pointed to other increasing household costs, including sanitation rates. The council is likely to consider and enact an increase in trash cart rates in the next few months. Even a small new tax is not imposed in isolation, Asare said: “Those things compound.” He also questioned raising taxes to pay for future equipment replacements when only one specific cost estimate had been presented. The city and county should first determine what needs to be purchased and how to pay for it, Asare said. Piedmont-Smith, who chaired the public safety local income tax committee, remained a supporter. She said she was surprised at Daily’s opposition because Daily had joined five other PS-LIT committee members in August, voting to recommend the increase. Piedmont-Smith said that the state legislature could not be counted on to replace current dispatch funding in 2029\. Rather than spend down reserves now, she urged preserving them for a possible financial crisis. She also disputed the idea that bonds would spare taxpayers, pointing that general obligation bonds are repaid through property taxes, which renters indirectly pay, too. ### Joint work required by 2018 interlocal agreement The council’s deliberations on Monday also drew out a feature of the [2018 interlocal agreement](https://bloomdocs.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/2018-02-07-interlocal-agreement-dispatch-Bloomington-Monroe-County-Res%5F18-03%5F-%5Fwith%5Fagreement.pdf ) that governs the city-county dispatch operation that seems like it has not really been adhered to. The agreement calls for the city and county councils to meet in a joint work session between July 1 and Sept. 1 each year to review the dispatch budget, with Bloomington’s city council responsible for scheduling it. The agreement allows the session to be skipped, if the city and county agree on a dispatch budget beforehand. Asare based his no vote at least in part on the idea that taxes should not be raised to pay for future equipment purchases before the city and county had jointly reviewed those expenses, as called for by their 2018 interlocal agreement. Earlier in the meeting, Asare had asked when the two councils last held the annual budget discussion required by the agreement. Interim city council attorney Larry Allen said he could not find evidence that the meetings had occurred. Piedmont-Smith reacted to the lack of joint work sessions by saying “I am, frankly, quite disappointed that we members of the city council didn’t know the contents of the interlocal agreement for PSAP, and didn’t know, therefore, that we were not meeting the obligations under that agreement.” She added, “I think that is a problem with the city legal department not sharing with us the agreements that they make or giving us adequate updates.” In fact, the interlocal agreement was approved by Bloomington’s city council 7–1 on Feb. 7, 2018\. The dissenting vote was from Allison Chopra, with council president Dorothy Granger absent. As vice president of the city council at the time, Piedmont-Smith [signed the resolution](https://bloomdocs.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/2018-02-07-interlocal-agreement-dispatch-Bloomington-Monroe-County-Res%5F18-03%5F-%5Fwith%5Fagreement.pdf ) approving the agreement.