Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson says the city’s operating budget discussions are underway with city council as state and federal funds dwindle.
“When my administration took over, we inherited a budget with a $16 million deficit, and I've been committed to reducing that deficit over the time,” she said.
Thomson said the city decreased that to a $12 million deficit this year with a target to get it down to $10 million next year.
“Part of that is because of Senate Bill 1 going through that has been a real wrench in our fiscal planning, and it means that we still don't know exactly how much we're going to have to spend this year,” she said.
Read more: Bloomington's Thomson on UDO changes, Hopewell developer, budget deficit
Indiana legislators cut property taxes costing local governments and schools millions of dollars a year.
Since last year’s budget process, city council and her administration are working toward a priority-based budget.
That is, they are allocating resources based on the importance of programs and services instead of evenly distributing funds across all departments.
Read more: City parks and recreation department asking for input on five-year master plan
Thomson said the city has other new burdens.
“The federal government is really not going to cover general cyber security on the international front, so we’re on our own,” she said.
The loss of state and federal support for climate action plans will also fall on local municipalities.
