It took city officials four solid days to complete the necessary paperwork for about one hundred funding proposals which were eventually submitted for scrutiny. Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan said he and other leaders knew the rejections would far outweigh the approvals, but says even one success pays for the entire endeavor.
"I think it's been a good exercise for us in refining what our priorities are," Kruzan said.
Speaking on WFIU's "Ask the Mayor", Kruzan said the process was very labor-intensive -- on top of being unprecedented -- but provides checks and balances.
"It avoids the whole criticism that people have of earmarks," Kruzan said. "It is a laundry list of projects put into legislation that get funded without people really -- even the legislator who asked for the earmark -- understanding exactly what the project is."
To be considered for stimulus dollars, each proposal had to estimate the length of time needed to get going and the number of jobs created, as well as supply federal fact-checkers with coordinates of the plot of land where each activity would take place. Bloomington's $3 million is just a small piece of the more than $4 billion state accountants estimate Indiana will receive.