The City of Bloomington may have what looks an awful lot like an austerity budget next year, despite double-digit growth in property values. That's because the city council chose to keep the same tax levy for next year, the second straight year of a flat levy, ignoring increases in the cost of providing services.
The city portion of the property tax rate will be going down about 9%, and the council decided to leave on the table about $4 million in potential tax revenue created by new development and growth in existing property values.
In response, Mayor Mboka Mwilambwe said the city will impose a hiring freeze and cut its workforce through attrition to make up for those rising costs.
"Everything has to rise to the top where it will be scrutinized to see whether or not those positions are needed, or if we can shuffle things around," said Mwilambwe, adding other cuts may come in capital project spending.
"Taking a closer look at some of the projects that we had slated in the next budget year and determining whether or not those could be delayed," he said.
Mwilambwe, in a wide-ranging interview on WGLT's Sound Ideas, said the city does not have a specific target for the workforce reduction and discussions are preliminary, though some reductions could be permanent even if the budget picture improves through economic development or potential future council decisions on revenue.
"If we get to that point and we notice that it hasn't had a major impact on our operations, then I think we'll leave things as is," said Mwilambwe, noting there will be areas that will be exempted from deep cuts.
"For sure, if there is something that is safety-related, that's not going to happen. We'll look at something else," he said.
The mayor pointed out the city also has hired an efficiency consultant to review city programs, though he's not sure how much fat there is to cut, or how much efficiency can be gained by changing the way the city works.
"Ask me again in a couple of months and we'll see where we are," he said.
If the city also needs to make permanent cuts to capital projects, he looks forward to voter feedback on setting those priorities.
"Things can always change down the line, but that’s something that I think people need to understand, the impact of making cuts. When you are cutting, you are cutting services and people may have to do without those and those will certainly generate some conversations with the public,” said Mwilambwe.
Previous conversations about potential cuts, such as closing down one or more of the city-owned golf courses, and the subsequent public sentiment was resoundingly against that direction, he noted.
“The last thing I want is for people to suffer a drastic decrease in services,” said Mwilambwe, adding did not support
freezing the levy again, but the council decided otherwise.
He said he wanted a smaller tax cut than enacted, in which the city would have taken some — but not all — of the increased revenue that could have been generated by newly built and increased property values.
PSCRB
Bloomington's civilian police review board has sought a change in how it can fill board seats. The city's Public Safety and Community Relations Board [PSCRB] has only had members between the ages of 16 and 21 once. They both left the board last year. The board requested a change in wording to allow it to fill those seats with people over 21 if needed.
The city council sent the measure back to the PSCRB for clarification.
Mwilambwe said there is value in having young people on the panel.
“Maybe a good compromise [is] to make those two positions adults for one year. It gives us time to find a youth member to be on the board,” he said.
Leaving positions vacant and not appointing adults while searching for youth members also is an option.
“We don’t necessarily need nine adults there. I think that can also become an issue with quorums and all kinds of things. I think it can operate with seven. That’s enough voices to hear from,” said Mwilambwe.
He acknowledged it is challenging even to find adults to serve, let alone youth who have classes and other commitments. He also noted one-year appointments may not be especially useful because it takes a while for new members to learn how the panel operates.
Eviction relief
Bloomington Township is re-implementing a Housing Assistance Relief Action [HERE] program for those in housing crisis due to inflation spikes over the last year.
“The funds were depleted. It’s getting quite a bit of use, and we want to make sure we provide help to those individuals who are having difficulty with their housing,” said Mwilambwe.
The township set aside $150,000 for the effort. The program makes awards of up to $3,000 per person available.
Rent control
A local group attached to a larger Lift the Ban coalition is promoting a bill in Springfield to lift a ban on rent control as a way to provide some relief to financially stressed residents.
Mwilambwe has said before he does not support lifting such a ban, arguing it would not address the main challenge in this housing crisis.
"Based on the work an ad hoc commission did on the missing middle in housing, everything points to more supply,” said Mwilambwe.
He said early in the new year the city will begin rolling out a number of initiatives based on the resolution passed by the council in late summer to increase the supply of housing.
Land Bank
The Central Illinois Land Bank Authority [CILBA] is starting its first round of demolitions in Macon County with a $337,000 Strong Communities Program grant from the Illinois Housing Development Authority [IHDA]. The land bank covers Vermillion, Macon, and Champaign counties. The goal is to ease redevelopment of deteriorated areas of communities.
Mwilambwe said a similar approach might have relevance to some areas in Bloomington-Normal.
“That is also part of one of the initiatives you are going to see us roll out,” said Mwilambwe. “We are really going to try to rehab a lot of the properties in the community that could use a little TLC."
He said the concept sounds similar to a proposed community land trust in the Twin Cities. The trust would purchase land and allow those who build on it to lease it for long periods of time, trying to address the significant barrier of the cost of land in redevelopment.
“We’re open to just about anything that we can do to make some progress on this housing issue,” said Mwilambwe.
