On Tuesday night, Monroe County councilors opened a discussion about next year’s salary increase for county employees.
A starting point for that discussion is 6 percent. No decisions were made on Tuesday. The county’s budget process will unfold over the course of a couple of weeks starting Sept. 6.
The 6-percent number is based on the December 2021 to December 2022 consumer price index increase (CPI) for the Midwest region, as calculated by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. That figure has long been used by the county council as a reference point for pay increases.
On Aug. 28, about three weeks from now, Bloomington’s city council will start a four-day slog through presentations from department heads, about their proposed budgets for 2024.
In 2023, Bloomington’s budget totaled about $129 million—that’s not counting the budget for city of Bloomington utilities (CBU) or Bloomington Transit.
In the past couple of weeks, the tax revenue picture has come into clearer focus.
The biggest chunk of the draft 2024 budget is about $12.5 million for acquisition of land to expand BT’s bus storage and maintenance facility.
At around $26.3 million, the draft 2024 budget is about $9 million less than the $35 million the board approved last year.
But that’s still $11 million more than the roughly $15-million budgets for the previous three years.
BT board chair James McLary called the 2024 plan a “very aggressive budget.”
The roughly $15-million budgets for the three years starting in 2020 already reflected a substantial increase, compared to the roughly $9- to $10-million budgets before that.
Last year, BT put extra money into electric bus acquisition, just to add to the size of its fleet—to prepare for running a new east-west express route, after a study is completed to analyze the route’s exact alignment and scheduling.
This year, the capital expense category is still the biggest fraction of the budget, but that’s mostly because there’s a $12.5-million item in that category labeled “land acquisition.”
For the certified shares category, Monroe County (across all government units) is projected to see about a 13-percent increase—from $34,232,607 in 2022 to $38,815,238 in 2023.
On Wednesday night, Bloomington’s city council voted 8–0 to postpone consideration of a countywide local income tax increase until its next regular meeting, which is scheduled for May 4.
The vote to postpone came a few minutes after 9 p.m. That made for a meeting that lasted about two and a half hours. Councilmembers asked questions of the mayor and staff, heard another round of public commentary, and discussed the proposal among themselves.
If the city council approves a LIT rate increase by a vote of at least 8–1, that will increase the tax for all residents of Monroe County. If the approval gets fewer than eight votes from the Bloomington city council, then the proposal would need to pick up some support from county councilors and/or members of the Ellettsville town council. Continue reading “Analysis: Bloomington city council to take up local income tax increase again this Wednesday”→
From left: Andrew Krebbs, John Hamilton, Beverly Calender-Anderson, Mike Diekhoff (April 20, 2022).
Bloomington’s city council has postponed its decision on an increase to Monroe County’s local income tax (LIT) rate.
On Wednesday, the vote on the motion to postpone was 8–1 with Steve Volan dissenting. The council will take up the matter again a week from Wednesday, at a special session on April 27.
Volan’s vote against postponement was not based on a desire to take a final vote on the LIT increase that night. Volan wanted some additional deliberation by the council on the question before postponement. The vote to postpone was taken at 10:52 p.m. almost four and a half hours after the meeting started, at 6:30 p.m.
Bloomington mayor John Hamilton has asked the council to consider an increase of 0.855 points, bringing Monroe County’s total rate to 2.2 percent.
If the city council approves the LIT rate increase by a vote of at least 8–1, that will increase the tax for all residents of Monroe County. If the approval gets fewer than eight votes of support, then the proposal would need to pick up some support from the county council and/or the Ellettsville town board.
On Wednesday, Bloomington’s city council could take a final vote that would enact an increase to the local income tax (LIT) that is paid by all residents of Monroe County, whether they live inside the city limits or not.
This article looks at the impact of enacting an additional 0.855 points in the certified shares (green) category of local income tax, instead of enacting the increase in the economic development category (lilac).
Bloomington mayor John Hamilton has proposed an increase of 0.855 points, which would make the total rate 2.2 percent. For county residents who pay the tax, it would mean an extra $85 dollars paid on every $10,000 of taxable income.
At the city council’s Wednesday night corral, there’s the possibility of some political horse trading, based on the amount of increase to the rate. The horse trading could even lead to a delay in the final vote for at least another week.
At-large council representative Matt Flaherty said at last week’s meeting he would support the rate as proposed by the mayor. But he added, “In working to meet my colleagues somewhere in the middle, at the very least, I think I can come down to 0.65, and find a balance of what I think is most essential.”
The balance to be struck in the package proposed by Hamilton is between public safety and essential services on the one hand, and climate change mitigation and quality of life on the other.
The focus of the council’s consideration now appears to be just the rate, and how much revenue it would mean for the city of Bloomington.
I think it’s wrong to make that the sole focus of deliberations.
Community discussion of Bloomington mayor John Hamilton’s proposed increase to the countywide local income tax (LIT) has not included much mention of category of LIT called the “certified shares” category.
This article looks at the impact of enacting an additional 0.855 points in the certified shares (green) category of local income tax, instead of enacting the increase in the economic development category (lilac).
The certified shares category has a current rate of 0.9482 percent.
For Monroe County, the total current LIT rate is 1.345 percent, which comes from adding an additional 0.25 points in the public safety category, 0.0518 points in the property tax relief category, and another 0.0950 points in a special purpose category. The special purpose LIT revenues are used for juvenile services.
It’s the certified shares category of LIT that many other units of local government rely on for some of their basic operating expenses.
Other revenue items on the agenda include two $5-million bond proposals—one for parks bonds and the other for public works bonds. [Updated at 4:34 on April 13, 2022: Two amendments to the list of projects to be funded by the bonds were posted by the city council office. Here’s a link: 2022-04-13 meeting packet addendum.]
Also on Wednesday’s agenda is a nominal decrease to the drinking water rate, driven by the General Assembly’s repeal of the 1.4-percent utility receipts tax. It was a pass-through tax, which means it was collected by utilities and forwarded to the state. For the residential rate, the decrease is 5 cents—from $4.03 to $3.98 per 1,000 gallons. That works out to 1.2 percent less.
No final votes will be taken on Wednesday night at the committee meeting. But it is the city council’s custom to take straw polls. That should give some indication of how councilmembers are leaning toward the proposed income tax increase. Abstentions are generally used as a mechanism to show moderate disapproval.
