The City of Bloomington will collect a property tax levy of $25.3 million for this year, marking 13.4% increase of $3 million from a year ago.
During Tuesday’s 75-minute final meeting of 2025, the city council approved the levy amount for the current fiscal year, and a nearly $7 million levy amount for the Bloomington Public Library.
“What we’ve experienced across the city are significant increases related to inflation,” said finance director Scott Rathbun in explaining the reasoning behind the requested levy increase. “We have some items here specifically impacted by that — utilities, benefits, especially insurance, technology, pensions and construction — putting some constraints on our operating budget, especially over the last three or four years, when inflation has really been running rampant.”
The council vote on the city’s property tax levy was 7-2, with Sheila Montney and Kent Lee in the minority.
“Everyone here [needs] to think long about who we represent, sitting up here,” said Lee, who also cast the only vote against the library levy. “I have heard constituents come and talk about the increase ... in our taxes, and especially those who are retired. They are on a fixed income.”
The levy amount equates to a tax rate of 0.95%, up from 0.9% in the 2024 fiscal year, but still lower than 0.99% two years ago. It remains well below Bloomington’s historical average of about 1.1%.
Based on Bloomington’s higher property values, the owner of a $200,000 home will pay about $80 more per year on their tax bill.
Prior to the vote, a required “truth in taxation” public hearing was held for the city’s portion of the levy. State law requires such a hearing if the tax levy increase is more than 5%.
Rathbun and City Manager Jeff Jurgens both said Bloomington’s portion of each residents’ tax bill accounts for about 11-12 cents per dollar.
“I believe that all of the taxing bodies need to get together and develop a point of view on how much collectively our residents and our businesses can endure,” said Montney. “The cost of taxation, especially property taxation, in the state of Illinois is cited as the No. 1 reason for our out-migration.”
Bloomington had held its tax levy amount flat for the last year two years. City staff feels the higher levy will help the city keep up with inflation and rising public safety pension costs.
“This is never an easy vote,” said council member Cody Hendricks. “We’re trying to make tough decisions in tough times, but we’re only one piece of that puzzle, and trying to continue to provide the services that residents of Bloomington expect and that we’ve always been able to provide.”
According to the staff’s agenda memo, the levy recommendation directs $1 million each toward the police, fire and parks departments “to help offset the longstanding gap between levy support and the true cost of providing these essential services.”
“I think when we look at the numbers too, we have to look at the cuts that the city has made to their staff, and those are direct services. I think we, in our position, have to be out talking to those that live in our wards about the services that we offer,” said council member Micheal Mosley.
Some confusion arose whether council members should ask Rathbun questions during the public hearing, or hold their inquiries until their discussion ahead of the agenda item vote. Ultimately, council conversations were permitted during both portions.
While the library’s $6.96 million levy is an increase of about $133,000, it works out to an estimated rate decrease from 0.28% to 0.26%.
“Property taxes are the primary revenue source for the library at 85%,” said Bloomington Public Library Director Jeanne Hamilton. “Benchmarking, the library is the lowest property tax when compared to our peer groups libraries of similar size in Central Illinois.”
Additionally, the council unanimously approved a pair of resolutions abating about $7.4 million in property taxes for debt services and rental payments the city intends to pay from sources other than property tax revenue.
Other business
Actions approved as part of a 15-item consent agenda included:
- Authorization to borrow $9 million from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s Public Water Supply Loan Program for work on the lead service line replacement project, and an additional $6.5 million for the reservoir management system at Evergreen Lake;
- A $497,000 purchase order for five years of flex support and maintenance for the city’s enterprise storage, as requested by the Information Technology Department;
- An amended $382,000 service agreement with Tyler Technologies for the city’s enterprise resource planning system and cloud-hosted storage;
- An annual renewal for the Flock camera system and services in the amount of $133,300;
- Subdividing a lot at 502 IAA Drive into two lots, to facilitate development of a Dutch Bros Coffee shop;
- Design work totaling $92,000 for traffic signal improvements at the intersection of Airport Road and Cornelius Drive;
- Spending more than $81,000 on new radios for the fire department;
- A $74,400 contract with Crawford, Murphy & Tilly for engineering services related to the North Main streetscape project;
- A five-year agreement with InfoSend for professional consultant services relating to utility billing; and
- An intergovernmental agreement with the Town of Normal for use of the police department’s shooting range.
