By: Diane Benjamin
The City of Bloomington loves to justify spending with economic impact numbers. The Coliseum management claims they have generated MILLIONS and MILLIONS of dollars of local economic activity, the Zoo is getting ready to create their own numbers. If we just spend more . . .
Meanwhile, tax receipts are down while local taxes are up. More fees and/or taxes will be raised right after the election. Luckily Renner’s candidates have a history – Painter voted for all 3 tax increases last year. Buragas has made it clear more “Revenue” is needed. Hauman never saw a spending plan she didn’t agree with. If elected, how do you think they will vote?
Since the City loves economic impact maybe they should look at negative economic impact. What about sending tax dollars out of Bloomington?
Below are tax dollars spent on legal expenses shipped out of Bloomington in JUST the first 2 1/2 months of this year. At this rate, a total of $824,541.36 this year will economically benefit some other city. Spending locally isn’t a priority with other purchases either.
Never included in the glowing economic impact reports are how many tax dollars were used to generate them. How many MILLIONS have been poured into building the Coliseum (and paying interest)? Rehabbing the BCPA? Maintaining and expanding the Zoo?
Taxes that could have been generated by allowing people to spend their own money is never included either. When government takes your money, local businesses are hurt and thus sales tax revenue decreases. Government only likes to tout their numbers. Maybe taxpayers need some numbers of their own.
Source: See the summaries after all the individual payments: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=242&parent=7718
Legal 1001-110-11710-100-70010- LEGAL Outside Legal Co 14,724.17
Legal 1001-110-11710-100-70010- LEGAL Outside Legal Co 3,504.06
Legal 1001-110-11710-100-70009- LEGAL Contracted Legal 55,701.84
Legal 1001-110-11710-100-70010- LEGAL Outside Legal Co 6,625.50
Legal 1001-110-11710-100-70009- LEGAL Contracted Legal 63,860.00
Legal 1001-110-11710-100-70010- LEGAL Outside Legal Co 27,363.87
Total: $171,779.44
There are other sources of revenue such as the city collecting fees owed by developers. The City Council voted unanimously in April 2014 and January 2015 to extend a Tolling Agreement from 1994 where the developer (Snyder) owes more than $650,000.00 in fees. If the city has a policy to float interest free loans for 20 years, tell me where to sign up.