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Page last updated on October 21, 2022 at 1:25 pm

Each week, Mayor Hamilton and Deputy Mayor Griffin provide video updates on recent news and key initiatives.

 

Transcript

John Hamilton:
Hi, I'm Mayor John Hamilton.

Don Griffin:
And I'm Don Griffin. I'm the Deputy Mayor for the City of Bloomington. And today, we're going to give an update on the budget. We went to the council a week ago and talked to them about the budget, and it went rather smoothly, but there are still some things that we still have to work out before the 15th. October 15th is...

John Hamilton:
The 12th.

Don Griffin:
October 12th.

John Hamilton:
That's all right.

Don Griffin:
Sorry.

John Hamilton:
No worries.

Don Griffin:
October 12th is when we want to...We're going to get a vote.

John Hamilton:
I hope so. We were both there on the 28th, the last meeting, where we formally presented the budget. Again, this is a really transformative budget. We're really excited and pleased about what we can do to walk the walk. We got a few questions, and we thought it might just be helpful to update folks about what came up. One was about overall compensation for city employees.

Don Griffin:
That's right.

John Hamilton:
This has been a high inflation year. There's a lot going on. We're doing a bunch of stuff. I'm really pleased that the local income tax lets us do a 5% COLA, cost of living adjustment. We're providing a $1,000 bonus for everybody in the city government. So, that's kind of more progressive. Everybody gets that. Whatever your salary is, reflecting some of that inflation. Then a couple of other things that are really new, for the first time ever we're going to have a matching savings program.

Don Griffin:
This is unique.

John Hamilton:
Right.

Don Griffin:
Yes.

John Hamilton:
For retirement, to help people. Like, two-to-one or three-to-one to encourage people to save for retirement. Then, we're also doubling the healthcare, like cash account for your deductibles. So all that adds up to over 10% increase for some employees.

Don Griffin:
Very nice. And, we're doing some things for our public safety folks, police, and fire.

John Hamilton:
Yeah, so we did get some questions. You remember.

Don Griffin:
Uh-huh.

John Hamilton:
...that night on the 28th about...

Don Griffin:
Vehicles, right?

John Hamilton:
Vehicles, take-home vehicles for police, and what are we doing. It's hard to recruit police now. We know that. We're working really hard. So, we do have a take-home police program, a pilot. It's been in place for maybe a year, a year and a half. Almost a third of our police officers do now have take-home cars. Anybody who lives in the city gets a take-home car, and anybody who's kind of on one of those emergency response units, like a critical incident response or that kind of thing, has a take-home car too if they're in the county. But we want as many public safety officials to live in the city as we can.

Don Griffin:
Absolutely.

John Hamilton:
So, there is also housing, you know, the housing program; it's pretty amazing.

Don Griffin:
Oh, absolutely. An $18,000 down payment.

John Hamilton:
Yeah, to help them buy a house.

Don Griffin:
To help them buy a house and $750 a month if they want to rent a house or apartment within city limits. Just amazing, and what we're also doing is we're taking that same program and applying it to our fire folks as well.

John Hamilton:
Right, so police or fire, first responders, it's really helpful to have them living in the city for lots of reasons. We've had off-duty fire officials who see a fire, report a fire, they can help, or off-duty police who are there. Having them in the city should help. So, I'm really excited about that. And we know, I think about two dozen, maybe not quite two dozen police and fire are using those or going to use those housing incentives. So, that's great.

Don Griffin:
Perfect.

John Hamilton:
Let's see; what else did we hear about on the 28th?

Don Griffin:
We talked about our...

John Hamilton:
Sanitation.

Don Griffin:
Sanitation, that's right.

John Hamilton:
So, we've proposed... It's kind of complicated. But right now, sanitation is subsidized by the general budget to support the cost of picking up trash from one to four family member houses, so the single-family homes. And some on the council and I kind of agree with them, think that subsidy should be phased out. I think the council's on both sides of this; different people have different views. So, we're leaving it up to them.

Don Griffin:
It is their choice. They can either raise it or leave it alone.

John Hamilton:
The budget leaves them that choice. It's up to the council to set the cart fees, and they have to decide.

Don Griffin:
And there are reasons, right? There are ecological reasons. Maybe, if we raise the prices of trash, then maybe we don't use as much trash, and we will start recycling a little bit more. However, the other side of that is the cost. Do we want to add cost to our residents right now? Is that something that we do with inflation and so forth? So, it's a hard decision to make, isn't it?

John Hamilton:
Luckily they get to make it.

Don Griffin:
Luckily...

John Hamilton:
No, we have a view. Anyway, it's what the council's there for, to make those votes. Then, we thought maybe the other thing that came up was reproductive rights, right?

Don Griffin:
Mm-hmm.

John Hamilton:
That's the only change we made to the budget from what we talked to them about in August was adding $100,000 to help reproductive rights organizations respond to the terrible situation in Indiana. I think they're all going to support that.

Don Griffin:
Absolutely. SB1.

John Hamilton:
I hope so. The fight against SB1.

Don Griffin:
The fight against SB1.

John Hamilton:
Then, I guess, I know we don't want to go too long, but the only other thing I'd say is those specific things were discussed. But, the big picture of the budget, it seems like we're kind of all pointed the same direction.

Don Griffin:
Seems so, intact. I always tell people, "We all want what's best." Everyone that's doing this public service, working for the government, they are looking for the best way forward for our community. So, we'll get there; together, we'll get there.

John Hamilton:
I hope so. October 12th, we hope it'll get voted on. It's got to be voted on within a couple of weeks under state law. So, I guess there's probably more information, right?

Don Griffin:
Absolutely, so check that out on our website, and as always, folks have a good one.

 

Learn more about the 2023 proposed city budget at bloomington.in.gov/budget.

 

 

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