by:  Diane Benjamin

Mayor Renner has repeated over and over the Council has been discussing the budget for 9 months.  Scott Black was on Cities 92.9 this morning with a different story.

According to Scott, the Aldermen had private meetings with City Manager David Hales starting in late February.  Hales met with them 2 at a time to avoid Open Meetings Act violations.  Of course, no minutes are available from these meetings.

Scott also said the Aldermen didn’t have a complete budget until March.  This is the budget with 17 new hires and $11,000,000 more spending than last year.  What did the Aldermen discuss with Hales?  Since the 17 new hires were almost immediately cut, obviously not massively growing spending.  What would the tax increases be if that had passed?

Tari likes to talk about all the citizen input.  Here’s the problem – the cuts citizens talked about have not been considered.  Not much of what the Aldermen proposed to cut has been considered either.

Instead of 9 months for next year – make it 11 Tari.  If you think this budget was difficult, upcoming years will be a nightmare.  Tari, you want pensions funded – tax increases aren’t going to fly.  Not enough people will still be in Bloomington to pay for them.  Cuts have to be made.  Tari, you said you ran for Mayor to make tough choices.  Raising taxes is the easy way out and the most destructive.  You have 11 months to tell the citizens why Quality of Life MUST be cut.  Tough?  Absolutely, but the next year will define your time as Mayor.  Start with telling the truth.