On Wednesday evening, Bloomington City Council voted to approve the 2025 Civil City Budget in a unanimous vote.
The $151 million budget includes wage increases for Police, Fire, and Community and Family Resource Departments, new affordable housing units, annexation planning and more.
The budget received a taxpayer objection petition ascribed to ten residents which was discussed at length during the session.
The petition took aim at the Capital Improvement Board, saying that the building of a new convention center was a misuse of public funds.
“The CIB is looking to create a facility which largely will not be utilized by the public,” said petition representative Joe Davis. “It is proposed that this would become a facility that could be rented out by any member of the nation or world who had a business plan to organize tournaments or other events, non-resident organizers that would serve not the public, not the people of Bloomington.”
Read more: Architects refine and update convention expansion project
The petition also threatened to file a class action civil tort against the executive and legislative bodies of the city of Bloomington and the county government if the budget was passed with no changes to funding of the CIB.
Ultimately, the council decided the petition did not warrant modifications to the budget based on the fact it was received two minutes later than state statute allows.
The budget also received an amendment to reduce the parking meter fund within the Community and Family Resources Department by $250,000 which was adopted.
The meeting also saw the adoption of the budget for Water and Wastewater Departments as well as appropriations and tax rates for the Bloomington Transportation Corporation.
The city’s fiscal year begins January 1.
