Renner praises budget task force for helping city plug deficit

Posted on February 24, 2016
Tari Renner
Bloomington mayor Tari Renner says even after the city closed a multi-million dollar deficit, the city is still looking to implement more recommendations from the city’s budget task force. (WJBC file photo)

By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington mayor Tari Renner said many of the recommendations from the city’s budget task force helped to eliminate the city’s multi-million dollar deficit, but he said the city’s budget-cutting work isn’t over.

PODCAST: Listen to Scott and Colleen’s interview with Renner on WJBC.

“We are now in a very strong financial position,” Renner said. “We’ve got our fiscal house in order. We are still working on it. A lot of the things the budget task force did we are still working on, including the golf courses. Do we privatize them, do we raise the green fees?”

Renner told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin the city is still exploring closing or privatizing one or more gold courses. The city is currently negotiating its 10-year contract with Central Illinois Area Management, the firm which runs U.S. Cellular Coliseum, and would like to consolidate its event booking with the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts, which he said could save another $200,000 per year.

Renner said if the contract can be redone by the start of the 2017 budget year in May, the money could be put into savings to get the city back to its policy of holding 15 percent of its money in reserves.

The city has presented an 11-percent budget increase after eliminating a $7.5 million deficit.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].

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