In this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson addresses these issues and more at City Hall. Listen to the full conversation with Indiana Newsdesk anchor Joe Hren by clicking on the play button above or read some of the questions and answers below. A portion of this segment airs 6:45 and 8:45 a.m. Wednesday on WFIU. Here are some highlights.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Hren: Tuesday morning the State Appeals Court had a hearing on Areas 1A and 1B - this is not the constitutionality case. This is after a five-day bench trial for areas that had more than 51% of signatures to appeal in court. They did and the city is appealing.
I was a little confused about hearing one ordinance, I thought there were seven, but there are seven areas. Is that correct? Why did the city do this in one ordinance?
Thomson: Whenever you do annexation, you have to do a fiscal impact study, and as well as an implementation plan. They're very labor intensive and cost intensive. So when the city invests in doing that, they want to really look at all of the areas that are intended for annexation. In this case, (former mayor) Hamilton did all of the areas, one through seven. And so that actually is also the part of the reason that I continued with this annexation.
I, of course, really believe that we have lots of urbanized areas because these areas were originally intended for annexation and proceeded with sewer waivers and other agreements as if they were already part of the city.
The Fernandez administration, of course, left an amicable agreement that these would be annexed in. And then the subsequent administration did not follow up with that annexation.
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Hren: The city also has a hearing scheduled with the state Supreme Court in October on the constitutionality case that you said has statewide implications. Why is that?
Thomson: So I'm going to get a city service, and in exchange, I will not remonstrate against any future annexation, because I understand this is an area intended for annexation. That's why I'm getting sewer services. And so when the court said those contracts are invalid, it really has pretty deep implications for what the validity of other contracts are not only in real estate, but elsewhere.
That's actually the case that's very deeply concerning to me and to many others, that if in our state, we cannot depend on the validity of a legal contract, what are we standing on?
Hren: I want to follow up on a H-T report that up to $400 million of development has been halted at the county airport because the city won't extend sewers and water to non-city areas. Is that something that you're willing to take a look at some point?
Thomson: We're, of course, willing to take a look at the economic development pieces related to sewer. Unfortunately, while we're in the middle of this annexation issue, it's very difficult for us to do that, and so we're waiting for the courts to decide.
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Hren: Budget hearings started Monday night. The 2026 proposed budget includes about $54 million in revenue and $65 million in expenditures. That's a total general fund deficit of $11 million. How does the city run on an $11 million deficit?
Thomson: We use cash reserves, and it did come up last night that some council members who've been serving for a number of years really did not want the public to believe that they were negligent with money when you knowingly spend down cash reserves. That is, it can be really a productive fiscal decision.
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We want to be sure in my administration that we are offering all of the information to the public, and that if we're choosing to run a deficit budget, that we are investing in something productively that is not a repeating expense. We can't get used to spending $11 million more than we have every single year.
My administration is really leading in a way where we're giving people more information than they've had in the past. It's not a criticism; it's just trying to do government really well in a completely open book.
Hren: We have an email asking about whether the city's fluoride level is low, and a reporter looked into it. City utilities said that it's not a political issue, it's an infrastructure issue. I'm gathering from the email that there was concern the city didn't report that to the public.
Thomson: We have reported it to the public. It actually got omitted from the standard CBU plan under the last administration. We actually put it back in so that the public would know where the fluoride levels are.
Fluoride is not required by the state, and so we do think it's important. We are trying to get it fixed as quickly as possible, and we're taking steps to attempt a new liner. If the liner doesn't work, the fix is very expensive and includes removing an entire wall of the water facility to put in an entire new tank. So then it's a million of dollars fix.
