by Carie Kuehn
BLOOMINGTON – The Bloomington City Council decided in a Committee of the Whole meeting Monday to take no action on additional fees for video game licensing.
“I think we need to track exactly where the expense is coming from,” said Alderman Kevin Lower. “It needs to justify itself. In my mind, we’re not tracking that and I don’t see it. We’re not encompassing the gambling issue itself.”
The decision came after much discussion between council members and the Liquor Commissioner Jim Jordan.
“We see it on a daily basis that liquor enforcement costs have gone up,” said Mayor Tari Renner. “So it is not unreasonable, certainly for us as a Liquor Commission, to say that the citizens of Bloomington for thirty plus years have been bearing all the increased costs, Bloomington taxpayers have been bearing all of the increased costs for liquor law enforcement.”
The ordinance would have charged businesses between $200-500 per video gaming machine.
The council also discussed drafting an ordinance banning the use of electronic cigarettes in the same places that traditional smoking is banned.
“I think this is the way to go, it’s kind of how the private sector is moving,” said Alderman Scott Black. “I have very little faith that the state will pull the trigger on anything so I think this is a more urgent matter than we can wait for the state to provide.”
The council decided to draft an ordinance that would ban e-cigarettes from city-owned buildings. That will be discussed in future council meetings.
Carie Kuehn can be reached at carie.kuehn@cumulus.com.
