By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – A task force has taken a look at some sobering numbers for the city of Bloomington.
City staff presented the budget task force on Monday with data that shows the city’s unfunded pension liability is an estimated $108 million, while the city is projecting an $8 million budget shortfall for the 2017 fiscal year. The city’s solid waste fund is looking at a $2 million deficit.
PODCAST: Listen to Hales’ interview with Scott and Colleen on WJBC.
The task force also saw Highland Park Golf Course is projected to lose $300,000.
“The one golf course that continues to run a pretty sizable deficit is Highland Park,” Hales noted.
The Den at Fox Creek and Prairie Vista have both turned profits in recent year. The Den projects a near $8,000 shortfall next year. Prairie Vista is expecting a $125,000 surplus next year.
Highland Park also needs about $1.35 million in infrastructure upgrades, far more than the other city courses.
With some big decisions ahead, city manager David Hales told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin, some on the panel want to make sure the group’s work won’t go for naught.
“If they come back with some controversial recommendations, will the council have the political will to follow through and adopt them – whether it’s cuts to programs, limits in services or to raise revenue,” Hales said.
In the data presented to the task force, the city outlines five ways to reduce costs; program reductions or eliminations, service reductions or eliminations, shared services, alternative service delivery or operational efficiencies in service delivery.
Hales said the task force will start coming up with recommendations for the city council to consider next month.
Public works
Recent storms have caused many storm drains to become clogged with leaves and debris. Bloomington is asking for the public’s help in keeping its storm drains cleared.
“We would appeal to all property owners to help us, we don’t have enough manpower to checks on these thousands and thousands of storm drainage grates on a continual basis,” Hales said.
Hales said public works crews have fallen about a day behind on its bulk waste pickup since it moved to every-other-week collection. Hales said it remains to be seen whether two crews will be able to handle the same work load that three used to do.
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
