Sales Tax

Winter weather complicates an already scarce parking situation in Downtown Bloomington. The Market Street parking deck has closed. And the Front and Center block has yet to finish demolition and become surface parking. That’s likely to become available sometime next spring.

McLean County Board Chair Elizabeth Johnston said there's significant movement on mental health program spending in the county. That comes from sales tax money shared with the county by Bloomington and Normal.

McLean County government has offered an olive branch in its response to notice of default from the City of Bloomington and Town of Normal in a protracted dispute over shared sales tax money.

When the state rollback of the locally shared grocery tax first passed, then-Mayor Mboka Mwilambwe said he believed there was no appetite on the Bloomington City Council to impose a local tax. Though the vote was still split, the council passed the tax this week.

The dispute over shared sales tax money for mental health and public safety has escalated again. Normal and Bloomington have formally accused the county of defaulting on the decade-old intergovernmental agreement on use of the shared revenue.

Gov. JB Pritzker called the grocery tax regressive and abolished it last year, effective in January 2026. Local communities can approve their own 1% percent sales tax on groceries.

Bloomington Mayor Dan Brady is trying to reassure citizens concerned about potential changes in zoning.

The Town of Normal is ratcheting up its rhetoric on the shared sales tax agreement the town and City of Bloomington have with McLean County government. And the county is pushing back hard.

Answers to why the roof of Reconcile Church in Bloomington caved aren't possible now that the building has been demolished. But city officials are asking themselves what they could have done differently.

Normal Mayor Chris Koos said if the county board does not act on an amendment to pause sales tax sharing that lasts at least a year, it would chill conversation among the town, city, and county over potential changes to an intergovernmental agreement.