There are further signs of a thaw in the shared sales tax dispute between the City of Bloomington and Town of Normal on one side, and McLean County government on the other.
The first hint of a breakthrough came with a memorandum of understanding on the scope of an audit to determine how money has been spent from the Mental Health and Public Safety Fund.
City and town officials have said the amount of unspent accumulated funds has become excessive. Also at issue is whether new record management system software for various parts of county government and the courts is eligible for money from the fund.
Now, the county has approved a three-month suspension to collecting the shared sales tax money.
“I'm pleased… that's a sign of good faith,” said Bloomington Mayor Dan Brady.
A suspension of revenue collection while talks continued over changes to the intergovernmental agreement covering use of the money had been a stumbling block. The county had objected to the effect of the pause on the overall length of the 10 year agreement. The county called it a cut.
There have been several versions of a pause in sales tax revenue collection over the course of the dispute. They have varied in length. In a WGLT interview Friday, County Board Chair Elizabeth Johnston was asked why the three-month duration is now acceptable.
“During the last meeting that we had, that was the request from the city and the town, and that was something that the county agreed was feasible,” said Johnston.
Brady said the city had made its own gesture of good faith last July.
“That was suspension of the payment, if you will, and putting it in some type of escrow— think of it that way—to hold the funds whenever the intergovernmental agreement is either restructured in parts or whatever final resolution there is to the matter,” said Brady.
The Town of Normal has not approved an escrow measure. The three-month suspension proposal is on the town’s meeting agenda for Monday. Bloomington must also approve it.
“We had a sit down a couple weeks ago with the county board Chairwoman Elizabeth Johnston, as well as the city and the town. I think that discussion went well, and I think that we're, with this move, going to be back on track, defining a resolution, hopefully in the near future,” said Brady.
He said the last meeting on the issue he was involved in came back in June. Since then, municipal and county staff have been in conversation. Brady said he hopes for an agreement in a couple months.
Johnston said negotiations are still getting started.
“Right now, we're sort of in the discovery phase of the negotiations, and determining what sectors are negotiable and which sectors are, in a sense, sacred cows,” said Johnson.
Talks are proceeding in parallel with an audit of expenditures from the fund.
“We knew the audit would take a couple of months. We have not seen an end date on that yet. I think the audit will deliver us concrete information to be able to have the negotiations and to be able to come to some final determinations. We'll be waiting for that to come out,” said Johnston.
