By: Diane Benjamin
On Saturday I reported the 4/30/17 financial statements for the City of Bloomington still haven’t been released, but the City did submit them to the Comptroller’s office last October: https://blnnews.com/2017/12/09/transparent-illegal-all-of-the-above/
The Comptroller’s office now has them posted: See them HERE
Tons of interesting easy to read info is available, including comparisons for 3 years.
Total employees: (Before hiring the DBA employees)
2015 583 full time, 42 part time
2016 619 full time, 48 part time
2017 622 full time, 55 part time
Population:
2015 77,733
2016 78,730
2017 78,292
Appropriations: (Total Budget)
2015 $180,426,393
2016 $186,302,469
2017 $207,620,553
EAV – this number matters because it reflects the total value of properties paying Real Estate Taxes. When the value goes up, property tax bills are higher even if the rate is not increased. If taxing bodies REALLY wanted flat rates (so you don’t pay more every year), the rate would decrease.
2015 $1,795,475,453
2016 $1,811,618,358
2017 $1,851,302,062
Debt at 4/30/2017 – $3,407.83 per citizen:
More to come!
All these new hire but they won’t hire a city attorney to save us at least $500K pper year. Incompetent and negligent are kind words regarding this mayor and councils report card.
39 more employees from 2015 to 2017. What in the world? Over 6% increase in employees. What necessitated this increase?! 559 more citizen = 39 more govt workers. This is outrageous! Is the council reviewing the headcounts?
No, they complain about not having enough employees
Correction: Not 39 new employees…39 Tari votes and champions of big government.
The Council is not reviewing the head counts. The City Manager does the hiring and firing.
Except the Council hired the DBA staff!
Only because there had to be a budget amendment approved by Council (the positions were not in the FY2018 budget) and the DDD had to be created within the Community Development department by ordinance.
Diana…I tried and failed to figure out how much $$ both cities have been paying yearly to service debt on bonds. With revenue flat, taxes up, and growth down – most citizens like myself want to know how much $$$ is being pumped out of our cities to banks via interest. Are we talking $100, $1000, $10,000, $100,000, or $1,000,000 a year.
The Comptroller’s site is the place to find it! I will post it later – this place is a gold mine for finding info fast.
I’d be curious to know who’s behind the synchronization of the traffic control lights. It would appear to me they manipulate them to cause traffic to stall and burn more fuel thus more fuel being sold and an increase in their revenue. All the more reason to outsource jobs to those better qualified to do the job. .
Streets full of pot holes, empty city buses, dumb bike lanes that snarl traffic and now it gets better.