Page last updated on September 16, 2022 at 1:50 pm
Each week, Mayor Hamilton and Deputy Mayor Griffin provide video updates on recent news and key initiatives.
John Hamilton:
Hi, I'm Mayor John Hamilton.
Don Griffin:
And I'm Don Griffin, the Deputy Mayor for the City of Bloomington. The 2023 budget is coming. However, today we are going to talk about the new local income tax and its impact on public safety.
John Hamilton:
Yeah, this is a big deal because we have new local income tax revenue, and we thought it might be helpful just to march through what that can help us do in the budget. And in particular, in public safety, we've dedicated millions of dollars, new dollars to support a few things. Number one, we are going to be supporting the increased police salaries. We put those in place this year. This lets us keep funding that so that we can have a fully staffed police force, which is critically important. We're actually also doing retention and housing allowances and things that we're trying to help attract police officers. Second, it's going to help let us support non-sworn officers' new positions. We've got social workers, we've got community service specialists, we're going to be adding those positions. We're actually adding a social worker right in the dispatch center, the 911 center, to help deal with some 911 calls that don't need to go directly to police officers, for example. That's on the police side.
John Hamilton:
On the fire side, we're also going to be helping invest in new positions. We're going to be supporting some health-focused fire personnel. People who will respond to health emergencies in ways that you don't have to send the big red truck. That's going to help us.
Don Griffin:
Okay.
John Hamilton:
And then lastly, it's going to help us with facilities. Because I don't know, people may remember the floods, and we got real issues with the facilities, both for police and fire. The new local income tax is going to support new investments in headquarters for the police and offices for the fire department and also upgrading our fire station.
John Hamilton:
The basic message is this new local income tax is letting us invest in public safety in very important new ways, and we really appreciate the community support for it.
Don Griffin:
And a lot of people don't understand how progressive and forward-thinking our public safety arm of the city is. Our police are CALEA certified. Our fire folks are... What's their ISO?
John Hamilton:
We're the only city in the state of Indiana that's got that nationally certified police department and the ISO top-rated fire department. And they're very progressive. We're really proud of them. They do great work. And this local income tax is going to take us to the next level.
Don Griffin:
Wow. If you want more information, please visit our website. And once again, take care folks. See you soon.