WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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In its meeting this past Wednesday, the Monroe County Board of Commissioners moved to approve an agreement through which public accounting firm Baker Tilly will review and analyze the City of Bloomington’s Annexation Fiscal Plan.
The motion to approve this agreement was amended to make it subject to legal department review pending contract finalizations before it was passed in a 2-0 vote by President Julie Thomas and Commissioner Penny Githens. County Attorney Jeff Cockerill elaborated on the details of this agreement.
“This is to have the fiscal plan of the city reviewed regarding annexation. They have a 45 day timeline that they think this work will need to be done and that would put it at mid July right now and the public hearing is scheduled for August 4th, so we really want to fast track this, but we want to make sure it is done correctly and accurately. That 50,000 is a not to exceed amount for what is considered the base work, which is essentially we ask them to provide an additional quote on a per-meeting basis so we could have meetings in the townships, with the people who are in the annexed areas, as well as other members of the public who are interested.”
In both comments and questions from community members and the Board of Commissioners it was consistently emphasized that the information from this report needed to not only be correct, but must also be received by County members before the City of Bloomington’s public hearing deadline on August 4th.
Cockerill would go on to explain how the short time frame will impact Baker Tilly’s process.
“I think that we have focused primarily on those who are in the annexed areas plus those who are in the townships that are going to have annexation occur within them, to kinda see what that does to their property taxes… I would be surprised if it didn’t raise the price a little bit but I can certainly talk to them and see if that’s something that is already included and it’s something they’re already thinking about… and again in order for this report to be meaningful we need it well before this August 4th deadline.”
Concerns over annexation’s impact extend beyond just current Bloomington residents to include prospective residents and city employees as well.
During the allotted time for public comment, Jim Shelton, appointee to the County Redevelopment Commission, discussed other local government functions that rely on the information from the county’s report.
“And because we’re doing infrastructure projects, if this impact is severe enough to make it impact what we are doing we need to know it NOW.”
Lack of transparency on the part of Bloomington City Council throughout the annexation process was another concern raised during the County Commissioners meeting and one of the motivating factors leading to the formation of this agreement with Baker Tilly.
“I think we talked about this at one juncture very early on but the thinking is that this requires… what the city has in their annexation report, fiscal impact report, is how individual departments would change and I think that that would require really digging into the city’s budget which may be well beyond our time frame and fiscal ability but this is an important question and I would hope that the Bloomington City Council asks for that kind of information but it’s a great question and it is one of many points where we don’t have information; we don’t have information, for example, on which waivers are expired…So I think there are a lot more questions than we would have time to answer.”
Despite not being directly included in Baker Tilly’s report, County residents still seek clarification regarding the status of their waivers.
“The reason why I believe that’s so important and also trying to get information for the city residents, because perhaps that will somehow encourage the city council to take a real hard look at this and so I look forward to some answers. I understand that getting them right is better than getting them too quick and having it wrong but time is certainly of the essence; because people need, now, to be looking at whether or not their waivers are good or not. That’s not up to us to decide, [City Council] needs to look at it and become very involved; you cannot sleep through this and expect to fix it once it’s over, it will be too late then.”
According to the Monroe County webpage regarding annexation, the County recognizes that through this process, “there will be impacts to many of the County’s funding sources including property tax (due to the circuit breaker tax caps), local income tax (including local income taxes designated for public safety), stormwater fees, Motor Vehicle Highway, Food and Beverage, Wheel, and Excise taxes” and that “these effects must be studied by Monroe County, so that residents and taxpayers know the facts regarding annexation and its financial impacts.”
Board of Commissioners President Julie Thomas voiced her confidence in Baker Tilly’s ability to provide Monroe County taxpayers with valuable information but she recognizes that time constraints might pose a challenge.
“And I will note that we were really impressed with Baker Tilly’s work with our townships, as they utilized their services to provide public information meetings for residents for the Fire District questions. So I have full confidence in their abilities but I don’t envy the timeline that they have to work under.”
With a motion to approve the agreement now passed Baker Tilly’s report of the Bloomington City Council’s Fiscal Plan for Annexation can be expected to be complete in mid-July, well before the August 4th deadline that has been set. In the meantime, Monroe County residents can stay updated on the annexation process and related developments by visiting the County website.
