Some Bloomington and Normal staff and elected officials have discussed the possibility of establishing a sales tax zone that would encompass both communities. One mayor said talk about talks is premature.
When asked about discussions of such a zone shortly after it was announced that Kroger would move its College Avenue location in Normal, a few blocks to the east in Bloomington, Bloomington Assistant City Manager Steve Rasmussen said, "Oh sure, that's been discussed."
Currently the City of Bloomington and the Town of Normal collect sales taxes within their boundaries and the money generally stays in the community and isn't shared. A sales tax district would collect funds from businesses in both communities and then distribute those funds to both communities, reducing competition among entities in the zone.
"We do have a precedent for that. There's the Metro Zone Agreement out by Mitsubishi and the far west side that includes Walmart and other things," said Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner during GLT's Sound Ideas on March 15.
According to a City of Bloomington budget document, the city and the Town of Normal agreed in January 1986 to develop the metro zone as part of the Bloomington-Normal/McLean County Enterprise Zone. Part of this agreement called for all revenues and all expenses to be shared between the two municipalities. According to the document, "this promoted development in the area without the worry of the two municipalities competing against each other when attracting businesses."
The west side sales tax zone is bordered by Route 9 West, Mitsubishi Motorway, College Avenue, and Wylie Drive and now home to Walmart, Wehrenberg Theatres, and other retail businesses, hotels and restaurants. Each year the city forwards to the Town of Normal half of all revenues generated from this area, including Sales Taxes, Property Taxes and Food & Beverage Taxes. The budgeted expenditure amount for FY 2015 was $1,238,295.
When asked about such a zone encompassing the boundaries of both communities, Renner said it's something that he and Normal Mayor Chris Koos and some council members have discussed.
"I think at 500 feet, we have agreement," said Renner. "Sometimes the devil is in the details. So we're going to work together to do what's best for the entire community."
"It could be (beneficial to both communities). It's hard to say," said Koos during Sound Ideas on Tuesday. "This whole thing is so premature. We really haven't had a chance to talk about it."
When asked about comments from Rasmussen and Renner about a zone, Koos said the level of discussion as been at the "hey, what do you think?" level.
"I wouldn't say we're on a path. We may find ourselves there in the future, but I wouldn't say that this is moving fast track," said Koos.
As for the devil being in the details, as Renner indicated, Koos said there are a lot of details, such as an "equitable mix, if we were to do such a thing."
"I'm just not prepared to talk about it right now," said Koos.