Bloomington mayor says city budget will suffer after state tax changes

By: Taj Simmons

BLOOMINGTON — Senate Bill 1 will drastically reform Indiana's tax laws and cut property taxes. Bloomington leaders believe it cuts too deep for the city to function properly.

Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson led a discussion about Senate Bill 1's potential affects, which also included several Monroe County politicians. They said the state tax changes are an unprecedented challenge to Bloomington's budget.

"What I hear from the people of Bloomington, all of whom got our property tax bill in the mail last week, is, 'Wow, this hurts,'" Thomson said.

"Because the state legislators who supported SB1 were too cowardly — and yes, I choose that word purposefully — to do their jobs, local governments are going to have to raise local income taxes to make up deficits," Monroe County Commissioner Jody Madeira said. "We're not going to have a choice."

A full house of constituents and government employees listened to the presentation at the Monroe Convention Center Wednesday morning.

Longtime Bloomington resident George'ann Cattelona was in the crowd. She is frustrated the city has to make changes because of decisions at the state level.

"It can feel like things are so far out of my control that I, along with my neighbors, have to figure out what that means for us," Cattelona said. "Sometimes I want to grab state lawmakers by the collars and say, 'Hey, have you thought about this? You made some decisions and we don't really like the consequences of those decisions.'"

Thomson said Bloomington will do what it can to maintain its current budget after the loss of property tax revenue, but its options are likely limited.

"The city's local income taxes in this bill are now approved by the county," Thomson said. "The city no longer has control over that."

Both city and county lawmakers say it will be challenging to handle Senate Bill 1's effect on their operations.

"We are essentially policy making in a sea during the perfect storm," Madeira said. "We need to call on our state officials to go back into session and help out our local communities. The local communities can not do this alone."