Tag: new positions

Proposed 2024 Bloomington budget of $131M includes 5% raise for employees, 2 dozen added jobs

At around 9:45 p.m. on Friday, the final proposed city budget of Bloomington mayor John Hamilton’s service was uploaded to the city’s website.

At about $131 million, it’s about 1.5 percent more than the budget approved by the city council for 2023.

That figure does not include the budgets for city of Bloomington utilities ($50 million) or for Bloomington Transit ($26.6 million). Adding in  those numbers would bring the overall total to about $208 million.

The 2024 budget includes a 5-percent pay increase for non-union employees.

Property tax revenues for 2024 will increase by 1 point less than the planned pay increase. That’s because the maximum levy growth quotient this year is 4 percent.

The revenue from local income taxes is estimated to increase by about 3.75 percent.

The B Square has counted a couple dozen additional positions that are described in the “budget book” that was released late Friday

The 387-page budget book is background to almost 7 hours worth of scheduled presentations from individual departments over the course of four nights this coming week. Continue reading “Proposed 2024 Bloomington budget of $131M includes 5% raise for employees, 2 dozen added jobs” →

$129M in 2023: Bloomington mayor asks city council to approve 21% bigger budget for next year

Bloomington city council (Aug. 29, 2022)
Bloomington mayor John Hamilton (Aug. 29, 2020)

The 2023 budget  that has been proposed by Bloomington mayor John Hamilton comes in at $129.2 million, which is about 21 percent more than last year.

That’s the figure in city controller Jeff Underwood’s memo, which was released on Monday at 2 p.m. A  news release came a few minutes later.

Hamilton delivered the proposal to the city council on Monday evening.

The budget reflects a 5-percent pay increase for non-union workers, plus a $250 quarterly bonus, for a total of $1,000 in bonuses.

Hamilton’s presentation was followed by a financial overview from city controller Jeff Underwood and an overview of compensation by human resources director Caroline Shaw.

After that, the council received departmental budget briefings from several departments: human resources; clerk’s office; legal department; information and technology services; city council; controller; and office of the mayor.

The departmental budget breakdowns were released last Friday.  The departmental budget presentations to the council will continue over the next three nights, all starting at 6 p.m.  The B Square will report reaction from councilmembers separately.

The $129 million reflects all of the city’s departments, but does not include city of Bloomington utilities, Bloomington Transit, or the Bloomington Housing Authority. Adding in the budgets for those three entities brings the total to about $229 million.

Changes residents will notice

Part of the budget proposal includes reductions in some city services, increased costs to residents, or changes to current practice.

Continue reading “$129M in 2023: Bloomington mayor asks city council to approve 21% bigger budget for next year” →

2023 Bloomington budget highlights: 24 new jobs, potential increases for trash fees, parking rates

A department-by-department breakdown of Bloomington mayor John Hamilton’s proposed 2023 budget was released on Friday.

Still missing from the release are memos from city controller Jeff Underwood and human resources department head Caroline Shaw, which are supposed to include an overview of city-wide finances and salary/benefits.

Those memos were described early Friday as forthcoming.

But responding around 9:15 p.m. on Friday to a B Square query, communications director Andrew Krebbs indicated the memos would not be issued that evening. Krebbs also could not give an estimated time when they would be produced.

[Updated at 2:23 p.m. on Aug. 29, 2022. The memos were released around 2 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 29: controller/HR memos]

Based on a B Square parsing of all the relevant tables in the 346-page document, the proposed total expenditures for all the departments in the city amount to around $117 million, or at least $10 million more than last year. Those figures do not include the budgets for Bloomington Transit, city of Bloomington utilities, or Bloomington Housing Authority.

The $117 million is an unofficial total, not just because it can’t be confirmed against the controller’s memo. The figure does not include lost revenue due to circuit breakers (tax caps) or debt service.  For 2022,  the tax caps accounted for about $0.5 million, while debt service came in at about $2 million. Continue reading “2023 Bloomington budget highlights: 24 new jobs, potential increases for trash fees, parking rates” →