By: Diane Benjamin

Making budget cuts isn’t a matter of cutting BIG things. It a myriad of small things that add up to big bucks.

Here’s one example:

This pic is from Normal’s budget:

Normal will be handing over $109,250 to the CVB and $100,000 to the EDC.

Why is Bloomington also giving the EDC $100,000 but handing $350,000 to the CVB?

PDF page 227 https://www.cityblm.org/home/showpublisheddocument/27695

The last column is the proposed budget number. Note all the other numbers are actual and from this years budget. The amounts haven’t changed for three years.

Bloomington does get some of the $350,000 back ($2100 a mth) by renting a floor of the Coliseum beginning this year. Still, why is Bloomington paying them 3 times more than Normal?

Keep in mind these are the same people who made up economic impact numbers for the Coliseum: https://blnnews.com/2014/06/24/coliseums-economic-impact-cough-cough/

The CVB is doing the same calculations for the BCPA now, see PDF page 174 of the proposed budget:

Just an FYI:

Next year the BCPA has projected income of $2,409,200 (PDF page 92)

They are projecting expenses of $2,780,814 (PDF page 113)

That is a planned loss of $371,614.

Want to guess who gets to cover that loss?

If you didn’t notice, all the information needed wasn’t on the same page. That would make it too easy to read.

The budgets of both cities are riddled with “small” amounts most citizens don’t know they pay even if they never participate. If the BCPA was a business they would be out of business. Since taxpayers have deep pockets, they aren’t forced to close the doors.

You might be interested in the Creativity Center writeup also on PDF page 174: https://www.cityblm.org/home/showpublisheddocument/27695

They have income and expenses that aren’t clearly reported either. In fact they aren’t a separate listing in the budget. Nice.

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