##VIDEO ID:gYDexiK926M## I've got a couple of people who pre-registered Sally and Bill I'm assuming looking to speak tonight or you just observing just observing okay sounds good uh so Sally and Bill as you're only speakers tonight uh we'll give you the full 10 minutes we don't let people go beyond 10 minutes but we leave that 10 minutes just in case somebody else will walk in at the end so Sally you're up first thanks um so I informed the city that I plan to speak at the December 16th was session I plan to ask again about police surveillance the city manager responded and the response included I tried early on in my time here to understand your perspective and bring an open mind to the concerns that you raised question for the city manager I began speaking at the beginning of the year I noted that restore the nine spoke around that time too specifically February 12 2024 yes or no do you understand the perspective and the concerns they raise do you understand their perspective you know they're here almost a year do you understand their perspective would you like me to answer Mr Mayor Please Mr ver yes if the city passes plans for the area and the residents note that the construction does not align with the plans and they come back to the listening sessions would you understand why they came back I think uh Miss Ness you're dealing in hypotheticals yes definitely hypotheticals yeah you know there there's a plan on the table they you guys you know they seem to understand the plan on the table but then it changes they notice it it's different and they come back I mean would that be a negative or you'd go off understand why they're back let me figure that out let me understand their perspective or would you be negative about it you know like why are you back and they're like well the plans changed so we're back would you understand why they were back or that would be and you are speaking in hypothetical Sally and I'll move on really helped to I'll move on further a discussion here okay for instance if the plans did not include a burm and the residents noted debris from moer Park parking lot being buried on site and they wanted it addressed would you understand their perspective and the concerns they raised I mean would it make sense to see them back in here if the parking lot was being destroyed and they plopped it on Moyer Park and they put debris there and then dirt on top of it would that be understandable or would you be like why are they here I don't understand their perspective it makes no sense okay I don't expect any answer I'll just keep going for instance if this construction was happening before 7 a.m. and they wanted it addressed would you understand their perspective and the concerns they raised for instance if the plants were for specific trails and residents noted additional Trails being constructed and they wanted it addressed would you understand their perspective and the concerns they raised May 2nd 2011 a cup was approved that staff stated the proposed reuse of the school with a variety of functions maximizes the occupancy of the vacant school so in 2011 the city approved a conditional use permit where it stated the maximum occupancy the functions maximize the occupancy of the vacant school I did not propose I did not oppose the proposed use it wasn't until I heard the ended use was for far more than what the building proposed that I got involved and spoke May 16 2011 specifically daf proposed a use for a prayer on Friday for 200 and yet had 800 to 1,000 at the building on March 2011 they did not own the property at that time and yet they had an event in a building that wasn't being used it didn't have a certificate ific of occupancy residents ask the city to address this are you saying this is not a perspective or concern you understand going back to the prior incidents Dar F took debris from their parking lot put it on shared property put dirt over it it was asked to be addressed and it wasn't the other instance darl Rook started Ed construction before 7 a.m. we wanted the city to address it it wasn't addressed the other one where I mentioned Trails you know like if specific Trails were planned and then something else happens would they be back in here like I thought the trails were here no now the trails are closer to the the creek you know they'd be in here they'd ask for us we were told 200 and they had 800 to a th000 and we wanted the city to address it the executive director at the time said people were curious but they would not all attend the 800 to a th showed up again at a building without a certificate of occupancy they did not own it and they had an event in the building of 800 to a thousand nothing and so the executive director at the time says he apologized for the park parking lot not being available to those who want to use the park and yet today it's like we don't get to use the park parking lot and it's like we want it addressed and it's a perspective you don't understand here in 2011 they had an event the executive director apologizes for filling up that Park parking lot and now it's filled up and nobody addresses it and it's a perspective you don't understand residents were given a list of staff to call we had concern at the time specifically about the intensity of the use of the property how would we know it was being the intensity of the use by the traffic and the parking darer fills their parking lot the Smith Park parking lot and parks in the street residents call and at one point the city did require darl ruk to follow the city on street parking regulations but not anymore and you don't understand that perspective how through the years the executive director knew knew the park patrons should be able to use their parking lot said it wouldn't happen it happens and nobody addresses it if the city permitted a group of daily use of Moyer Park and stated 200 but had hundreds more and filled the moyer Park parking lot and residents asked the city to address it and the city did not this wouldn't be a perspective you'd understand or concern if the save the the nine restore the nine came in here and said wait a minute what's going on we never knew you were going to allow this type of use at Moyer Park and here they were back in here asking the city to address it but somehow me asking the city to address the non-compliance and overuse and and the continued the other thing about the continued changes at the building the amount of conditionally used permits the amount of changes through the years going from uh for instance um in um 2013 um the city changed it so institutional uses were required to be adjacent to an arterial collector and yet in 2016 there was a cup Amendment for a daycare 2017 there was a zoning request from residential to commercial in um August 2017 the fire inspector issues a certificate of occupancy for a Charter School even though there hadn't been a conditional use permit process or one approved so each time these happen you're going to see me here saying address this so it seems like she's in there all the time well yeah I am because they were always here asking for changes changes that weren't city code compliant um so then um 2017 August 2017 um they wanted to add the charter school to reach levels of 175 um August 29 2017 then it was a cup to increase from 60 to 120 um November 2017 those weren't approved so then this is another thing if something isn't approved you can't come back to the council for a year and reason is it's awful for the residents of the air neighborhood to have to keep addressing proposed uses but if they get the inkling that the city is going to prove it and they pull out then they can come back in and request another cup so August 29th it didn't go through November 2017 there was the cup expansion from 6084 um Sally your time is up okay thanks so you have to sign that you can find her you know who she is yes thank you you're welcome um Mr Becker good evening welcome pardon good evening welcome well thank you mayor I appreciate it I almost called you Governor want be Governor not pay him enough for that job there many Tims who are Governor right now I want to thank the uh the mayor and the city council for uh allowing me to speak this evening um this topic taxes is normally going to be covered in about you know half an hour um but I couldn't make that so I appreciate accommodating me so uh so so typically what we do Mr Becker if if we have a topic on the on the agenda where there's going to be a public hearing right we don't allow it to be discussed just here if you're not going to be be able to be there later tonight yeah since there's nobody else here I mean we'll allow tonight but I just so you know we're we'll stretch rules a little bit because I'm I'm happy that you're I did ask permission before y be happy and your secretary gave me permission dirty darn it so who runs this government anyway yeah well you'd be surprised that's right I also want to uh thank um Mr Rivas and Mr MAA I asked my wife she knows this kind of stuff and anyway um I want to thank you and also your secretary um Miss Mercer for communicating with me you're very professional very encouraging uh didn't give away any secrets but I appreciate your your uh your thoughtfulness and if the rest of you are like that then I think bloomington's in good hands so thank you uh my name is Bill Becker and U my wife and I have lived at 87 40 Woodcliff Road uh since 1993 before some of you were born probably uh we've raised our three children there uh this past Friday on December 13th I sent an email to the council members and the mayor um and told of the struggles bloomington's seniors have with a large annual tax increases that we we get from not only property taxes but also the the city tax part of that now when I say struggling Bloomington seniors I'm a senior of one an army of one okay maybe like Sally um but um hope not but um uh uh so I I didn't do a survey I didn't do any that good stuff but it's it's me um I uh I sent this email to all of you folks two and a half pages um so I'm not going to reread here however I do want you to know that my own city of Bloomington taxes have increased from other way do you want to copy what I'm saying you didn't get emailed you didn't get emailed this okay this is so we pick that up and thank you the other email with the data that that good and I'm glad I'm glad you did so my my my city of Bloomington taxes have increased um in 2017 um when it was $1,380 uh which is the year I retired I was 70 years old at that time and it's it's being proposed to go to $2,329 in 2025 this represents a 68.8% increase in my Bloomington city taxes 68.8% over8 years my total property taxes have increased from 4,000 68 in 2017 to a proposed $678 in 2025 and this represents a 47.2% increase in my property taxes in 8 years those are big numbers especially when you're retired during the same eight-year time period my wife's and my combined social security income has risen 27.3% therefore in 2025 44.6% of the increase that we will receive from Social Security will go to paying the 99.3% increase in my 2025 property taxes which includes the 11.3% increase in our 2025 city of Bloomington taxes that 44.6% number came from um I described it in my email to to you my taxes are increasing $575 my social security is increasing a net of $1,229 if you divide 7575 by 1290 you get 44.6% increase so for examples if in 2025 my wife and I receive a $100 a month increase in Social Security which is going to be darn close we would turn around and write a check to H County and the city of Bloomington for $446 each month to cover just the increase in our 2025 taxes we could keep the remaining $554 each month to pay for increases in our out-of-pocket medical expenses our medicare premiums our Medicare Advantage premiums which none of you are on homeowners insurance car insurance maintenance food food gasoline utilities and all the other cost increases that comprise our cost of living during 2025 these percentage increases don't um these percentage increases don't apply to just my wife and me to some degree they apply to every Bloomington resident um but especially to retired Bloomington residents whose incomes are more fixed those 65 and over represent 20.3% of bloomington's population and has been the fastest growing piece of the PO of this the fastest growing segment since 1980 I Googled it every fifth person you see in Bloomington is a senior every fourth taxpaying person you see in Bloomington is a senior and I would guess that almost although senior represent 25% of bloomington's taxpayers the city collects more than 25% of its revenue from Seniors seniors have been paying taxes for decades I know because I've been around for decades we are grandparents the best best job in the world we are your neighbors we are not bad people but we need your help we need you to put an end to high tax increases so please read my letter take it to heart and please act on it thank you yes council member dandro thank you Mr Mayor I'm happy to meet you thank you for Turing in all that are you uh yes sir nice to meet you yeah I'm pleasure thank you very much always good yeah um so so I'm asking some questions and I'll probably ask some questions specifically about your situation because you're giving us specific information um but we can make it more generic if you want to as well okay do you know what your the value of your home was in 2020 in 2017 like what it was assessed at at the time I have it at home I that's that's okay I uh I keep my uh Mr I think yes the answer answer is yes I don't know it off hand okay I'm not g to leave here I don't don't worry the reason I bring it up is I can look back 20 five years and I can tell you that at in 2020 you're house was worth $ 49,942 now it's valued at 5, sorry $547,500 increase has a lot to do with the fact that this the levy itself is is against that property value so your property value I'm going to guess has gone up 68% or more since 20177 and the so it's hard for we don't control that the state and the auditing process defines what your property is assess assessa right I understand that a 9.25% increase which is what we're proposing tonight is a high increase and I am not debating that we will debate that later um but we don't have control or authority over property value assessments and every single one of us I think on this at this stage table is a homeowner here in Bloomington at least the council members and we all experienced that same shock between 2020 and 20124 when our home value skyrocketed that's why State legislator's work has gone into number one increasing the homestead exemption and I believe you probably saw in your taxation estimate that the homestead exemption went up for you proportionally speaking I hope so it did for me for sure because it meant that my despite these increases is the property value of my house that was assessed last year is actually going to be lower this year and it has nothing to do with the property value changing it has to do with the fact that I'm getting more from my homestead exemption so we have the folks in the legislature to thank for some of that um but that's where that happens the assessment we're making we're at time here I'd like to make sure that Mr Becker has a absolutely my comment to you is or my question to you is knowing that where where would you like to see us make changes to the Investments we're making so that we can Target those and explain that knowing that we don't have any control over your property assessment unless you want to come and debate that property assessment in April when that happens yeah um thank you for that explanation um I would think if my property value increased my tax rate would go down because um if the tax rate stayed the same I was assessed and and my property rate you know my property um value went up I would think you'd get tons of tons of tax money I mean tons of tax money because my property value went up the tax rate stayed the same maybe that you charge me and there um I I would think my I I would think the the money that came into the city would go up I would think that if my property ta if my property value went up my tax rate would go down the city's specific tax rate the other the other thing is why don't you talk to our the other thing is my my property tax my my my property tax went up 99.3% in 25 that's what it's proposed that's that's right that's and my tax value and my home value went up $4,000 if you divide 4,000 by 512 you get less than 1% there's a difference also between the levy and the percentage increase in in the in the the property text I'm sorry we we we do have to cut this off I don't want to go too long and I understand your questions and so on but I want to make sure that we're fair to to folks especially downstairs we they only get five minutes to talk to us you got a full 10 so you got you got a Bonus five there he talk just yeah I know she does she does that Mr vugi thank you thrown me under the bus Mr uh mayor and council members Mr Becker I think um what we can do is just connect you with our city of assessor um in addition to the valuation which uh council member dandro had some of the numbers but you know 2019 it was 395 so it's been a 31% increase in the last six years in the valuation but what the assessor can do is just walk you through the math of how the levy calculates against the the total valuation within the city and then how that gets divvied up because you know some of I understand what you're saying in terms of trying to figure out how the uh how the um rate uh would work and and um it's it's misunderstood right now so um Tim Baler uh our City Assessor I'll put him in contact with you and you can talk to him we also actually have uh we can find the the uh web link um because our our budget manager and our City Assessor did a really nice piece on how valuation and Levy works together um because it explains those mechanics pretty well so we'll get that to you as a followup from tonight just two seconds two seconds yep can Tim help him if there's any property tax relief options absolutely absolutely office yep y there in 2025 you know I do want to thank you guys I um um you changed this the uh City speed limit city limit speed limit from 30 to 25 you should have gone to 20 but it's in a step in the right direction there are kids everywhere in our neighborhood I mean everywhere and you got UPS trucks FedEx trucks Amazon trucks mailman and construction and they're all going faster than they should not the mailman he's he's but I me it so that so I thank you for that and uh and Merry Christmas thank you for your job you guys do for Bloomington just lower my taxes okay to lower all I would look for to adjourn our listing session and head downstairs second we got a motion in a second tojn all those in favor we are adjourn we'll see you downstairs thank you