 Economic competitiveness does not happen by chance. It is built over time through consistent investment in education, healthcare, infrastructure, and the systems that support a skilled workforce.
Chambers of Commerce often engage on tax policy through the lens of growth, investment, and long-term economic competitiveness. Businesses also depend on fiscal stability and predictability. Oklahoma’s experience with tax reform offers a cautionary lesson—not because tax reform itself is flawed, but because the structure of how it is implemented matters (Pew Charitable Trusts; National Conference of State Legislatures). For Indiana lawmakers, the takeaway is straightforward: tax policy only strengthens competitiveness when it is fiscally sustainable. What Happened in Oklahoma Beginning in the mid-2000s, Oklahoma enacted permanent income tax cuts while relying heavily on oil and gas revenues to balance its budget. During periods of high energy prices, this approach appeared manageable. When prices fell, revenues collapsed. The tax cuts, however, remained in place (Pew Charitable Trusts; National Conference of State Legislatures). This mismatch created structural budget instability. Oklahoma faced recurring shortfalls and relied on one-time fixes rather than long-term solutions. From a business perspective, this matters. Employers make investment decisions based on certainty. Fiscal volatility introduces risk and limits long-term planning.
0 Comments
 While overall crime rates remain relatively stable, businesses continue to experience frequent nuisance behavior—such as trespassing, loitering, and repeat disruptions—that drives increased calls for service and strains public safety resources.
These incidents may seem minor in isolation, but over time they create real costs: lost business, employee turnover, higher insurance premiums, clean-up bills, and a sense that public spaces are less welcoming. Property owners need clearer tools. One practical, underused tool available to commercial property owners is the Criminal Trespass Authorization form through the City of Bloomington Police Department. Why this matters Under Indiana law, police can only issue a trespass warning or take enforcement action if the property owner has granted authorization. Without it, officers are often limited in what they can do—leading to repeated calls with little long-term resolution. By completing this form, property owners:
This is not about criminalizing hardship or asking police to conduct routine patrols (the form explicitly notes they cannot). It is about giving law enforcement the legal authority they need when a call is made to address repeat trespassing.  As the year closes, I'm proud of how the Chamber has elevated the business voice while engaging directly with our community's toughest challenges—housing and homelessness, public safety, economic development, and infrastructure. Our approach remains consistent: show up, ask hard questions, and advocate for solutions that strengthen both people and place.
This work is powered by the growing engagement of our Advocacy and Legislative Councils. Over the past several years, both have expanded in size and participation. Members come prepared, stay engaged, and offer practical insights that ensure our advocacy reflects the real-world experience of our members. I want to recognize A. John Rose and John West, long-serving chairs of the Chamber Advocacy Council (CAC). Their leadership, institutional knowledge, and steady guidance have been invaluable in shaping our efforts and maintaining the Chamber's credibility. One lesson continues to emerge: effective collaboration rarely leaves everyone fully satisfied. Some of the best examples of government working properly are moments when all parties walk away a bit uncomfortable, but confident the process was grounded in the public interest.  Why the Mayor’s Homelessness Report Matters for Bloomington’s Economy
Last month, the City of Bloomington released a comprehensive report outlining its current approach to homelessness, public safety, and encampment management. The mayor's report confirms what local employers have experienced: public disorder, unsafe conditions, and unpredictable enforcement create real costs for businesses and the broader community. Disruptive behaviors, vandalism, aggressive panhandling, open drug selling, public intoxication, and human waste have a real impact on how downtown, parks, and neighborhoods look and feel. Families decide whether to picnic at the park or shop downtown based on those experiences. Business owners weigh whether to expand, relocate, or invest. Visitors evaluate whether to return (pp. 27). A Shift Toward Economic Reality The most significant aspect of the report is the City's explicit recognition that homelessness policy and economic vitality are deeply connected. The report identifies visible public disorder as a factor in business confidence, visitor behavior, and long-term economic vitality (pp. 28–31). These are not just cosmetic problems. We must protect Bloomington’s quality of life, our public health, and our economic health (pp. 27). This framing aligns with the Chamber's long-standing position: compassion and accountability are not mutually exclusive. A community that fails to maintain safe and accessible public spaces undermines both its social and economic foundations. Progress Driven by Advocacy The report reflects progress made through sustained advocacy by the business community. Several elements directly address concerns raised by Chamber members over multiple years:
Legislators’ Key Priorities:
 The City of Bloomington has officially approved a significant water-rate increase that affects every customer class—residential, commercial/industrial, institutional (including Indiana University), wholesale utilities, and irrigation users. The Bloomington Common Council passed the ordinance on September 30, and will now proceed to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) for final review and approval.
This update summarizes the impacts on businesses, the justification provided by the City, and considerations for Chamber members—including Cook Medical and Indiana University, both of whom have expressed opposition or concern. What Passed on 9/30 According to the B Square Bulletin report, the City Council voted on Sept. 30 to approve the drinking-water rate increase, sending the measure to the IURC for final action. This aligns with the structure shown in Ordinance 2025-35 and supporting documents in your packet. Key Approved Rate Changes (per Ordinance 2025-35)
Impact on Businesses Large Commercial & Industrial Users
Why the City Says the Increase is Needed Per Crowe LLP and Stantec’s studies in the rate-case packet:
Next Steps: IURC Review (2025–2026) Ordinance 2025-35 now advances to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC).
 Bloomington loves a good streetscape redesign. We also love a good debate. And right now, the City’s College–Walnut Corridor Study is giving us plenty of material for both.
The City’s goal is clear: transform Bloomington’s original 1950s-era highway pair into vibrant, walkable, economically strong corridors. We’re on board with that vision. Who doesn’t want safer streets and stronger business districts? But as with most big ideas, the devil’s in the details — and in this case, in the parking counts, traffic patterns, and memories of other Very Big Projects That Got Complicated (hello, Route 7). At our December Advocacy Council meeting, the Chamber dug into the City’s two design alternatives — the One-Way Pair (the system we all know and sometimes love) and the Two-Way Conversion (the concept that’s generating the most eyebrow raises). Here’s where we landed. The One-Way Plan: Familiar… but with a Parking Diet The one-way option keeps College and Walnut flowing as they do now but adds upgraded trails, new green space, more loading zones, and the kind of placemaking that actually helps businesses. But — and this is a big but — it removes a lot of parking. Between 3rd and 7th Streets alone: 143 spaces → 82 spaces. That’s not a haircut; that’s a buzz cut. For businesses that rely on lunch-hour turnover, short-term parking, or downtown drive-up customers, those lost spaces matter. Still, the concept improves safety without fundamentally rewriting the corridor’s DNA — and there’s some comfort in that. The Two-Way Proposal: Interesting Idea, Thin Data The City’s two-way idea splits the corridor personality in two:
On paper, it brings one extra parking space downtown. Yes — one. Bloomington businesses are not likely to erect a monument in its honor. The bigger concern? We do not yet have strong, Bloomington-specific data showing that converting two major, high-traffic arterials into two-way streets will improve safety, reduce conflicts, or support businesses long-term. Cities nationwide have had mixed results, and Bloomington’s unique traffic conditions — special event surges, IU game weekends, trucks making deliveries to older buildings with narrow loading options — raise legitimate questions. The Chamber’s position right now isn’t “no.” It’s “show us.” And preferably with charts, peer-city case studies, and a simulation or two, we can actually understand without a PhD in traffic modeling. A Quick Word About the 7-Line Look — we all appreciate bike infrastructure. Bloomington should be a leader in multimodal mobility. But it’s also fair to acknowledge that the 7-Line’s rollout created a deep well of community-wide skepticism about large transportation redesigns. That doesn’t mean we reject big ideas. It just means Bloomington is still recovering from a project that looked great in renderings but felt over-engineered in reality — and the public wants assurance that we’re not repeating that experience on an even larger corridor. Deliveries, Events, Mobility: The Practical Stuff Matters Our members raised recurring concerns:
What the Chamber is Doing Next The Chamber is coordinating with the City to host a structured public meeting — not an open house, not a comment box, but a real presentation with:
Bottom Line We support the City’s push for safer streets and economic vitality. We support the vision. We support the goals. But on the two-way conversion? Let’s just say we’re holding our applause until we see more than a sketch and a parking count of +1. Bloomington has big dreams — and when we do big right, we do it really right. But residents and businesses deserve confidence that this project won’t become another example of admirable intentions meeting avoidable complications. Before Bloomington changes the direction of two major streets, we need clear data, transparent engagement, and real-world operational answers. And we’ll keep working to make sure our business community is informed, heard, and central to that conversation.  Mayor Thompson's administration implemented Priorities-Based Budgeting (PBB) to the 2026 budget but felt the results could improve. PBB focused on values, not results. Facing new revenue limitations, the administration is transitioning to Outcome-Based Budgeting (OBB) for the 2027 budget. OBB shifts the budget question from "what are our priorities," to "how will we know if these priorities worked?"
What Is OBB? How Does It Work? OBB is the process of aligning resources with available funding and puts an emphasis on expected outcomes. While it follows a similar vision alignment like PBB, it stresses measurable outcomes and transparency. This strategic budgeting process:
Roadmaps and Applications from Case Studies Cities like Baltimore, MD and Winder, GA have successfully implemented OBB in their budget process and continue to each year. While their cities are bound by different populations with different needs, their roadmaps are very similar:
With the OBB need for enhanced collaboration, cities have used mixed leadership structures and teams to manage implementation. Baltimore has a mayoral leadership team which leads budget talks and assembles Results Teams made up of mayoral staff, city department staff, budget and performance staff, and two citizens. Results Teams are tasked to coordinate with city agencies and articulate outcome priorities and costs. Creating these teams makes organizational sense when applying OBB framework to a population of 568K people. The city of Winder with a population of 21K, has a Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) spearheading the incentive with assistance from the ICMA and city leadership. OBB relies on flexible and honest leadership for successful outcomes, and a structure that has capacity to meet population needs. What the City Should Consider While this approach is incredibly comprehensive and transparent, it is inconvenient. It incorporates everyone into the budget discussion, takes in-depth understandings of programs, services, staff, revenue, and other expectations into account, and enhances collaboration. While these are all good things a city should have in its budget process, it is extremely time consuming and labor intensive. With that considered, the City Council Fiscal Committee has started timeline conversations now to prepare for the ambitious 2027 budget. The next questions should address how to organize roles during this budget process. How will Bloomington delegate leadership roles to move OBB forward?  On Wednesday, October 8th, the Bloomington City Council voted to pass the $163 million budget for 2026. This decision had two dissenters: Councilmembers Flaherty and Rosenbarger due to lack of trust in the mayor’s administration. The $163m budget increased from $147m last year, mostly due to the $12m in anticipated revenue from the Food and Beverage Tax.
There were some notable changes and appropriations to the budget, including:
Comparing past spending, the city had projected deficit spending in the last 5 budget years but ended in fiscal surplus. While the city track record shows resilience, they have not treated the city’s deficit like the vulnerability it is. The city needs to prioritize lowering the deficit, but this will be much harder to do with SEA1's implications. To do so, they will need to cut personnel to get the outcome-based budgeting this Mayoral administration is looking for. It is fiscally necessary to make the cuts that will hamper progress the least, and that will likely translate to putting new hires on the chopping block. Serious reductions need to be made for the city to continue healthy fiscal standing.  At the September 30th Monroe County Council meeting, former Councilor Geoff McKim offered a candid reminder about the challenge facing our community: Monroe County’s projected $4.4 million budget deficit is not being driven by office supplies, travel, or one-time capital expenses. It is overwhelmingly tied to personnel costs — the number of employees, salary adjustments, and the rising price of benefits like health insurance. The Chamber has repeatedly spoken about the need to rein in the number of FTE(s) in the city and county.
Why Personnel Costs Matter Personnel costs are by far the largest part of county government spending. When the budget is out of balance, trimming small items such as supply accounts or travel lines is not nearly sufficient and not the best use of time. To restore fiscal health, the conversation must turn to:
McKim’s testimony made it clear: “There is no path to fiscal balance that doesn’t involve addressing personnel costs.” The County Council’s Challenge This is an incredibly difficult process. Council members hold the purse strings, but they do not have direct administrative control over how department heads run their offices. They cannot simply order a department to restructure its organization chart, consolidate functions, or streamline staff. They can set budgets, but the day-to-day changes that create efficiency must be driven by department leaders themselves. Councilmember Kate Wiltz emphasized that approving a hiring freeze or budget adjustment is only the first step. Implementation is just as important. Since departments are self-contained, the Council’s best tool is to require trade-offs — for example, if a department wants to add a new role, it may need to eliminate another position to keep staffing levels in balance. This approach forces departments to think strategically about their FTE flow charts, maximizing the utility of each role rather than simply expanding. Local Government’s Short Runway The challenge is compounded by the broader framework in which counties operate. For better or worse, local government is a creature of the state. Monroe County must work within mandates set by the Indiana General Assembly, even when those mandates restrict flexibility. Senate Bill 1 (SB 1), for example, reshaped property tax and local income tax structures in ways that limit local revenues. It gives counties only a short runway to adapt, while cost pressures continue to grow. This makes the work of local officials even more critical. The Chamber believes the best government is run by leaders who live in the community and understand its needs firsthand — not by part-time legislators who rarely see the consequences of their policies on local budgets. We have local elections for a reason. County councils and commissioners are best positioned to balance fiscal responsibility with community priorities. The Chamber’s Own Experience The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce faced a similar challenge several years ago. Our organization was not immune to financial pressure. We made the difficult decision to reduce the number of full-time employees (FTEs) while at the same time raising salaries for the remaining staff. The result was a leaner, more efficient Chamber that stayed true to its mission and came out stronger. It was not easy, but it worked. And it showed that sometimes the right path forward is not across-the-board cuts, but fewer positions with stronger pay, resulting in higher productivity and fiscal sustainability. Moving Forward The Chamber respects the hard work of county employees and the elected officials who must make these decisions. But as advocates for the business community, we stress the importance of fiscal discipline. Unchecked deficits today could lead to higher taxes tomorrow, directly impacting local employers and residents alike. As the County Council continues budget deliberations, we encourage them to pursue sustainable, structural solutions to personnel costs. It may require tough choices — but, as our own experience proves, those choices can put an organization back on a stable footing, better in the long run. |
|
|
Copyright The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. All Rights Reserved.