Corrected – David Hales budget increases

By:  Diane Benjamin

In honor of the Supreme Court meeting today to decide if the plan passed by the legislature to fix pension is legal:

2014 Total Compensation Report – City of Bloomington

http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=6713

Of course the report doesn’t include totals, so here they are:

Salary:  37,123,891.83

Overtime:  3,308,160.59

Insurance:  6,133,866.04

Pension:  8,727,071.05

FICA etc:  1,808,149.59

Misc:   2,498,508.07

Total:   59,599,647.17

These totals are what the City pays – not the employee.

In addition, the City passed a pensions funding plan that requires millions of dollars more every year:  http://blnnews.com/2014/04/11/bloomington-pension-funding/

For 2014 the Pensions Funding plan called for another $6,090,000

By 2023, that number climbs to $14,625,000

A few weeks ago Mayor Renner accepted an award in Chicago for funding pensions!  No word on where the money is coming from, want to guess?

Wonder why your roads aren’t fixed?  Wonder why your taxes will continue to skyrocket?

An EASY way to control pension expense is to not hire employees.  Obviously the City of Bloomington doesn’t buy that.  They added Assistant City Managers, a Communication Manager, etc etc. Every department complains about not having enough employees.

David Hales declared the current budget unsustainable!  It is unsustainable when Renner and Hales plot new ways to spend your money while ignoring needs – like funding pensions.  Aren’t you thrilled the Council is going to be asked to pass an unsustainable budget?

Meanwhile, the potted plants approved spending that could have been used to fund pensions without tax increases.  Obviously their priorities aren’t pensions when they can just tax you more.

Here’s a short list the Council has passed or will pass because they DON’T represent citizens – they work for Hales and Renner:

• $8.5 million for new lighting and streets-cape downtown
• $245,000 to buy Sugar Creek Packing with unknown future expenses
• $60,000 a year to the National Development Council for unknown services
• $116,000 for Internal Auditors to explain their job to them
• $90,000 a year to the Downtown Business Association who was required to fund themselves years ago
• $2.51 Million more for Coliseum upgrades
• $500,000 for the BCPA
• David Hales admin budget increased almost $800,000 since 2011
• $150,000 for flamingos at the zoo
• $17 Million zoo expansion
• After the election – a downtown hotel
• hiring consultants for almost everything because David Hales isn’t capable of making a decision!

You can fix part of the problem April 7th.  Replace Joni Painter and Diana Hauman – then elect Jeremy Kelly.  4 independent voices on the Council will shake things up.  David Sage may even remember he used to be a conservative.

One more note:

Remember that $50 charge per bucket for solid waste?  They never planned for that to pass.  After the election it will come back as $25, then you are supposed to kiss the Council’s feet for listening to the people and being reasonable.