by: Diane Benjamin
Normally the Finance Director presents a report monthly. Monday night City Manager Tim Gleason said it would be posted to the website. It is now: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=25082
Start with the bottom of page 3. The only reason Bloomington is not bleeding now is because they STOCKPILED your money. Under David Hales the number $15 million was thrown around as adequate reserves, lately it’s been $18 million. The City had $25,000,000 banked – $7 million that you couldn’t spend yourself because it was scooped up by government.
The City still has very limited history showing Revenue to date – see the far right column of PDF page 2. Since the fiscal year began May 1st, it seems like more data should be available by the end of July:
This isn’t pretty. Bloomington still has more reserves they can use, maybe they will realize soon it’s past time to get back to work.
If shutdowns continue much longer government will be forced to endure the same pain citizens feel. That’s when this over-reaction will end. I predict November.
I really don’t think the shutdown is going to matter at this point. All this shutdown has done (except for the economic and job losses) is accelerate the disruption that was already underway.
What will these numbers look like in:
3 months?
6 months?
1 year from now?
Where will State Farm be in 1 year?
Where will ISU be in 1 year?
You can almost bet money that State Farm and ISU will be bringing far LESS money into the area in the near future.
The question is: What is our leadership doing to prepare for this coming economic downturn?
Answer: Dreaming about building underpasses and bus stations while they pretend to be Banana Republic Generalissimos.