The topic of the Monroe Convention Center renovation and expansion project has recently been prominent on the work plan for Bloomington’s city council.
This coming Wednesday’s (April 10) council meeting will make two out of the last three regular meetings that the council has had an item on its agenda involving the convention center project.
At its March 27 meeting, the council voted to ask the food and beverage tax advisory commission (FABTAC) to review a $250,000 expenditure from the revenue generated by the tax, to support the 2024 budget for Monroe County’s capital improvement board (CIB). That’s the group of seven people who are providing the governance for the convention center expansion project.
This coming Wednesday, the council will be asked to approve the CIB’s budget, based on the $250,000 appropriation, which was already a part of the 2024 adopted budget for the city of Bloomington.
This past Friday, the council held a work session on the topic, at the urging of councilmember Kate Rosenbarger, who is looking to spend food and beverage tax money on projects other than the convention center.
Based on Friday’s work session discussion, besides Rosenbarger and Matt Flaherty, there’s little appetite among city councilmembers, or other elected or appointed officials, for altering course from the current plan in any significant way.
That plan is for the city to use the vast majority of its food and beverage tax revenue to pay for the convention center expansion project. Continue reading “CIB budget cued up for Bloomington council, no big course change in sight on convention center project”
