The city portion of the levy is currently projected between 100.6 million and 101.5 million, which represents an increase of approximately 6.6 to 7.5% of an overall Bloomington tax levy impact.

Our budget mission really comes down to balancing two things. We want to sustain and enhance the quality of life that residents expect from Bloomington while also recognizing the economic pressures households are experiencing and the changing demographics of our community.

residents do express a lot of pride in Bloomington and value city services in the direction of the community. At the same time, affordability is definitely a concern. Uh we are hearing concerns about property taxes and particularly the cumul cumulative impact of increases over time and residents also want to see clear value for the taxes that they're paying.

the city of Bloomington doesn't have any flock cameras that we use... We do use uh different types of cameras and obviously body cameras with on uh all of our police officers.

There was a 15-year period where the average levy increase was 3.64%. In the last five, it's been closer to eight and a half. And the directive that has been given from this council to staff is to work to bring that pendulum back towards the middle.

the response times just weren't what I think our community should expect... it doesn't matter if it's your house. There's only one fire that matters and it's the one that happens at your house and how quickly they show up.

My theory of budgeting is uh if you can get a good sense of how spaces will be used that allows you to make reasonable forecasts of revenue and then expenses associated with them.

Level one really making these relatively pain-free adjustments that are doing things like education, registration, food and beverage, pursuing some external grants, optimizing utilization of spaces a little bit that really does yield significant positive results with very little sort of pain uh to the RAOS.

I think I've struggled with the continuously increasing property tax levy request, knowing that this is an important amenity, but then also it's just kind of like the question was like where does it end? Like where does it stop? And I think having an an actual strategy and a plan in place is going to be great.

nonprofit arts organizations are all in a very fragile financial state. So they're very nervous about anything that might impact their sustainability. At the same time they recognize that change is coming here.

it looks like uh staffing ends up at roughly the same level regardless of which scenario we choose. Uh if that's the case, the decision isn't really about staffing. It's about how much of the cost we pass on to the reos versus the absorption as a city subsidy.

We just want to make things easier uh bring down some of those regulatory barriers that we've identified that can hopefully not gum up the works for uh development projects that make their way to the city.

those are important for ensuring enough room for utilities, drainage, sidewalks, all those necessary infrastructure elements for development. Um they also contribute greatly to the pedestrian experience.

I'm I'm kind of reluctant to to do the 20, you know, even get to that point. I mean, I mean, the planner in me says move it down to 10... I don't want to you know uh do that knowing knowing that you I just want to make sure that we're as a council understanding what we're doing when we go ahead and do this.

What is really the benefit? Well, how many more units are we going to be able to get if, let's say, the 40t get down to 10 or even 20?... if we clearly specify why we we want to do these things these changes.

I think 40T is too much. I think 10 feet is too little. I like 20 feet.