By Andy Dahn

BLOOMINGTON – Increases to liquor license fees and video gaming machine fees could be coming to Bloomington.

Mayor Tari Renner said taxpayers should no longer have to pay for increased police presence in bars and restaurants due to liquor and gambling issues. He added that owning a video gaming machine is essentially “owning a license to print money.”

“There is no overhead that businessmen have in this,” Renner said. “The big picture here is that it costs us millions of dollars a year, taxpayers spend millions of dollars in law enforcement dealing with liquor. It’s the reason why liquor and gambling fees are charged everywhere in the world.”

Under the recommendation from the Bloomington Liquor Commission, license fees would increase by 20 percent next year, then 15 percent each year for two years. Renner called it “ridiculous” that anyone would be opposed to the increases.

“Liquor law enforcement is expensive, especially liquor and gambling,” said Renner. “We’ve had many expensive, explosion situations even in restaurants in Bloomington. We’ve got some very narrow people who are only looking out for their own self interests. I’m the Mayor and I have to look out for the interests of taxpayers and of the city.”

If the increases are approved Monday night, Renner said Bloomington fees will still be several hundred dollars less than Normal’s fees.

Andy Dahn can be reached at [email protected].