Community Budget Advisory Committee (CBAC)

In Minnesota, public health is provided as a partnership between community health boards and the state of Minnesota. There are defined roles and responsibilities for community health boards which the Minnesota Department of Health defined in the Local Public Health Act (MN Statute 145A). In general, the boots on the ground doing work in communities are the staff of local community health boards. The City of Bloomington was one a few cities providing public health services before the Local Public Health Act was created in 1976.  At that time, in 1976, the City also met the requirements to continue to provide public health services as a community health board. So, in 1976, the City Council of Bloomington made the decision to commit to becoming a Community Health Board and we have had a local public health agency working in Bloomington since that time. 

Public health literature has found one of the strongest predictors of public health performance is the size of the population served, for example if the population is below 25,000 or above 500,000, performance drops.  Public health work is also best done at the local level where services, programs and policies can be tailored to the community.

While the City does invest over a million dollars in support of public health, that results in the City having access to around 3 million dollars in grants and contracts to support public health work in our community, providing services to the residents of Bloomington.  As the 2018 public health service assessment found, that “the agency’s comprehensive services provide a strategic advantage to the community. Bloomington is recognized as a leader in public health largely because it has in-house staff that can deliver a level of service far above what the county or state can deliver in the community.”

We are seeing that play out today with our COVID-19 response as our staff are finding innovative ways to provide services and supports to our community. 

The Bloomington School District and the City of Bloomington are separate entities that set their own separate budgets and property tax levies.   The City’s budget shortfall will not impact the School District’s budget.

We have not been specifically tracking expenses related to the four hotels that have been serving as shelters but there has definitely been an increase in police calls.  The Police Department has increased its presence around hotels where service calls have increased. Also, the City does not collect lodging taxes on the rooms that are in long-term contracts, and does not control the ability of hotels to enter into these contracts. For example, two of the hotels are under contract with Hennepin County, which is using the hotels primarily to house seniors who may have medical needs and are having difficulty finding affordable housing due to income limitations. 

That is a good point.  That is another option.  It hasn't been considered because the amount of necessary budget reductions and service cuts are so large in order to achieve a 0% tax levy increase that it didn’t seem feasible to suggest an option that would reduce services even further.

The City is not currently working on any plans to replace Creekside, including the location or design of a new community center.

The total 2020 Property Tax Levy for the City was $64.7 million and here is a breakout:

$54 million = General Fund

$250K = Communications 

$125K = Motor Vehicle

$185K = Forestry / Diseased Trees

$1.1 million = Fire Pension

$1.2 million = Aquatics (Pool and Beach)

$1 million = Art Center

$300K = Golf (Dwan and Hyland)

$  80K = Ice Garden

$950K = Tax Abatement District

$5.5 million = Debt Service

$64.7 million = Total 2020 Property Tax Levy

The entire 2020 budget for the General Fund was $79.4 million and revenues are comprised of a combination of the $54 million of property taxes shown above along with revenue from lodging and admission taxes, permit revenues, license revenues, program fees, grants, and other revenues.  

Here is a break out of the $79.4 million of expenses in the General Fund budget:

$ 3.7 million = City Council/City Manager/Human Resources/City Clerk

$ 2.0 million = Legal Department

$ 1.3 million = Finance Department

$ 1.1 million = Police Administration

$20.8 million = Police Operations

$  5.8 million = Police Support

$  5.4 million = Fire Department

$  900K = Community Development Administration  

$1.5 million = Community Development Planning

$2.9 million = Building and Inspections

$2.6 million = Environmental Health

$2.0 million = Assessing

$300K = Community Services Administration

$3.4 million = Public Health

$1.1 million = Community Outreach and Engagement

$1.5 million = Parks and Recreation Administration

$1.2 million = Creekside Community Center

$600K = Cultural and Special Events

$7.2 million = Recreation Programs and Park Maintenance

$500K = Public Works Administration

$3.1 million = Engineering

$3.1 million = Maintenance

$7.4 million = Street Maintenance

For more detailed information, here is a link to the 2020 Annual Budget Document https://www.bloomingtonmn.gov/sites/default/files/Budget_Book_2020_FINAL_0.pdf

The recommendations from the Community Budget Advisory Committee are scheduled to be presented at the City Council meeting on Monday, November 9, 2020. There will be opportunities to comment on the draft recommendations in October on this site as well as community listening sessions on October 15 and October 17.