By: Diane Benjamin
The below was sent to City of Bloomington employees by City Manager Jeff Jurgens before the November 18th Council meeting. (Yes I’ve got a stockpile of things I haven’t gotten around to writing about!)
Expect “structural deficit” to raise it’s ugly head again. That was Tari Renner’s excuse for raising taxes. Under him you got a gas tax, amusement tax, video gaming tax, utility tax increase and local sales tax increase.
Because of inflation your budget probably has a “structural deficit” too. Government never sees YOUR problems, just theirs. To balance the budget they will either attempt to raise taxes again or cut the most visible items. The goal is to make you mad your elected officials didn’t raise your taxes. At this meeting they didn’t approve the staff requested property tax levy.
This slide was shown at the same meeting:
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Most of these items were not requested by citizens. Citizens just get the bill. This was posted on NextDoor:
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All,
Tonight, the City Council will begin discussions on the 2024 property tax levy. As part of this, I’ll be outlining some projected deficits that will begin next year in FY26 (about $3.75M) and that will grow in FY27 to about $6M. These deficits are driven by improved staffing levels (lowering our vacancy savings by $2M) and the State’s elimination of the 1% grocery tax that will be eliminated on January 1, 2026.
City staff is recommending the Council consider increasing the property tax levy rate by .07 to help address a $4 million funding gap in public safety pensions. If approved, this increase would establish a dedicated funding stream for these pensions, lower the pension subsidy from the General Fund and allow time for the City to implement organizational adjustments to offset the remaining deficit.
However, even if the Council ultimately approves a levy increase, we still must tackle uncovered portions of the projected deficits, and likely other rising costs, in the years ahead. That’s why tonight I’ll be emphasizing the importance of tightening our belt and continuing our collective efforts to operate more efficiently and frugally.
No one likes taxes and we all strive to deliver the highest value to our residents at the lowest possible cost. To that end, we cannot ask the taxpayers to shoulder the entire burden of these upcoming deficits. Instead, we must commit to taking responsibility and finding solutions within the organization as well.
I truly appreciate your dedication to the many initiatives we’re pursuing to ensure our services are delivered in the most effective and efficient way. I do believe this will play a pivotal role in helping us close the projected deficits and helping get many other projects off the ground and across the finish line. Together, as a team, we will meet these challenges head-on.
More updates will follow as the process unfolds. In the meantime, let’s stay focused, support one another, and continue making progress together.
Thank you for all you do!
Jeff Jurgens