June 26, 2010

What has the city council been up to?

June 2: Regular Session

Resolution 10-12: To extend the Bloomington Urban Enterprise Association (BUEA) and Enterprise Zone another firve years. Enterprise Zones were created by the General Assembly in 1983 to offer a package of tax incentives to help revitalize and generate employment in a distressed area within a locality. The Urban Enterprise Association administers the funds. Our Zone began in 1992 with the encouragement of the former State Department of Commerce as a way to help Thomson Consumer Electronics and the community. After Thomson left, Bloomington’s Enterprise Zone was expanded to include a larger geographic area. The BUEA has two main sources of revenue:

1. Enterprise Zone Loan Interest Credit (Financial institutions may take a credit of 5% on qualified loans within the Zone and, if they do so, must turn over an amount equal to 20% of the savings to the Zone as a participation fee)

2. Enterprise Zone Investment Deduction (a property owner may apply for a tax reduction on investment made on property in the Zone, and the BUEA gets 20% of the tax savings)

Locally, our BUEA has supported many projects using income from the fund including historic preservation, small business loans, school grants, scholarships to zone residents, and sidewalk improvements.

The administration of the BUEA is done by the HAND department of the city, specifically by Doris Sims. She brought forward this resolution to extend the life of the Enterprise Zone until Jan. 31, 2017. The Council approved the resolution.

June 9: Committee of the Whole meeting was cancelled

June 16: Regular Session

Resolution 10-11: To approve the allocation recommendations of the Jack Hopkins Social Service funding committee.

Although there was general agreement among council members that all the projects being funded were worthy of support, Andy Ruff did express concerns about two projects. He felt that the city should not be in the position of funding the public schools, as the committee recommended funding the new “Artful Learning” program at Fairview Elementary. He felt that the city should not have to make up funding gaps caused by inappropriate funding formulas and budget cuts on the state level. Also, he was reluctant to fund Bloomington Hospital Community Health because BH has a huge budget and pays its administrators very high salaries, and therefore should be able to pay for its own programs. But he was convinced of the importance of both the Fairview and the BH programs and voted for the packet of recommendations.

Several members of the public spoke against funding for Planned Parenthood, and several spoke in favor.

The Council vote 8-1 in favor of the resolution. Brad Wisler voted against it.

June 23: Special Session

Danise Alano, Director of the Department of Economic and Sustainable Development, presented the annual tax abatement report. This is a report on properties where property taxes on investments in real estate (commercial, residential, and mixed-use buildings) and equipment (for commercial properties) were reduced over a specified period (usually 10 years) due to a specific “statement of benefits” which would be provided through the investment. The benefits usually are creation and/or retention of jobs, rehabilitation of historic properties, creation of affordable or low-income housing, creation of housing downtown, and – in the case of IMA – provision of health care services to the indigent. The report showed how each property substantially complied with the statement of benefits. Only one business, Metropolitan Printing, clearly did not hire as many employees as expected, but in that case it was found to be due to factors beyond their control (changes in the printing industry and a reduction in the use of professional printers).

The Council accepted the report by a vote of 7-0 (2 were absent).