The $6.87 million bond Bloomington’s city council approved Wednesday combines a replacement aerial platform fire truck with transportation and street-safety work. The 5–2 vote also exposed a broader divide over the city’s borrowing: how to pay for capital projects while ensuring that approved funds are spent as promised.
The B Square Bulletin’s report on the vote said five votes were the minimum needed for passage. Hopi Stosberg, Isabel Piedmont-Smith, Isak Asare, Courtney Daily and Dave Rollo voted yes; Matt Flaherty and Andy Ruff voted no. Kate Rosenbarger and Sydney Zulich were absent.
Of the total, $2.5 million is earmarked to replace Bloomington’s only aerial platform fire truck, which has been out of service for more than four months, with repairs estimated to exceed $100,000. The B Square Bulletin reported that the truck has experienced increasingly lengthy periods out of service. The remaining $4.23 million is allocated to transportation projects, including $1.7 million for 10th Street improvements, $1.5 million for 3rd Street improvements, $500,000 for sidewalk and bikeway work, $280,000 for crosswalk safety projects and $250,000 for street lighting.
Why Flaherty Says He Won’t Be Fooled Again
Flaherty’s objection was about oversight after money is appropriated, rather than the proposed projects. He said he did not consider it acceptable for council to lose its role once funds are approved and said he would be reluctant to approve further administration appropriations without stronger accountability. “I won’t be fooled a third time,” he said, according to The B Square Bulletin.
Flaherty cited two past disputes: restrictions on bond money for the Showers West project, begun under former Mayor John Hamilton, and an agreement with Mayor Kerry Thomson’s administration to prioritize Indiana Avenue safety improvements. The Indiana Avenue project was delayed after opposition from some Indiana University stakeholders. City transportation official Andrew Cibor said the corridor is expected to receive further consideration in a broader downtown transportation study planned for 2027.
Ruff’s Bike-Camera Pitch and a Lopsided Amendment Vote
Ruff proposed cutting the bond authorization in half while retaining the $2.5 million for the fire truck and reducing transportation spending to selected sidewalk, pavement and lighting work. He argued that curb extensions can narrow the space bicyclists share with motorists and showed videos he recorded while cycling near traffic-calming features west of Rogers Street on Kirkwood Avenue. “I cannot vote for more of that,” he said.
Eric Ost supported Ruff’s amendment, which failed 1–6, with Ruff the sole vote in favor. Iris Bull said the videos showed a section where work was incomplete and pavement markings could still change. Flaherty defended curb extensions and other traffic-calming measures as evidence-based ways to reduce crashes and severe injuries, while Paul Rousseau argued that traffic-law enforcement should play a larger role in addressing conflicts between motorists and cyclists.
City’s Case: No Other Revenue Source
City Controller Geoff McKim argued that a smaller bond would not proportionately reduce issuance costs and could disrupt the city’s planned pattern of issuing roughly six-year bonds every three years. He said general-obligation bonds are the city’s principal practical option for major capital investments given constraints on other property-tax revenue, and that Indiana’s property-tax restrictions make regular borrowing increasingly important.
A financial adviser’s presentation projected a property tax rate of $0.0249 per $100 of net assessed value tied to the bond, equating to $24.90 annually per $100,000 of assessed value before property tax caps apply. Justin Chang, per Reedy Financial Group, said the additional tax burden would primarily affect properties not already at their constitutional tax caps. Separate reporting from the same outlet’s earlier coverage had pegged the projected annual increase at $33.70 per $100,000 of net taxable assessed value before circuit-breaker credits. The ordinance authorizes borrowing up to $6,868,000 at an interest rate no higher than 5.5%, with the debt expected to be repaid through additional property taxes over slightly more than six years.
A Familiar Pattern on the Council
Cibor said some transportation funding was needed to draw on federal money already secured for crosswalk improvements. He said traffic-calming designs are intended to maintain existing bicycle lanes and preserve lanes cyclists may use, and reported that crashes on 7th Street declined after its redesign, particularly after all-way stop signs were restored. The city collects before-and-after project data and publishes crash information online.
Dave Rollo voted yes but said he was deeply conflicted about the bond proposal. He said transportation engineering work could potentially be postponed, but that the fire truck replacement was necessary, and he characterized expensive aerial firefighting equipment as a cost of allowing taller buildings in the city, ultimately borne by taxpayers. Stosberg said she supported the needed investments despite her accountability concerns, singling out the Covenanter Drive and Auto Mall Road intersection improvements and additional street lighting as worthwhile projects.
The current vote follows another divided bond debate in 2024, when council approved $4.3 million in general-obligation bonds by a 7–2 vote. Rollo and Ruff opposed that measure, citing a lack of project detail and limited council control over spending. Flaherty said then that a non-motorized connection funded through a 2018 bond still had not been built. The 2024 bond was projected to add about $70 in property taxes for a home assessed at $200,000.
What City Records Show
A separate earlier measure, Bloomington Ordinance 2024-24, adopted Nov. 20, 2024, authorized up to $3,751,500 for Engineering Department projects, including community traffic calming, crosswalk safety improvements, curb ramps and traffic signal modernization, according to City of Bloomington records. The current bond’s project allocations are described above. The available ordinance information establishes the earlier measure’s funding cap and project categories, but does not provide enough detail to make a definitive comparison of oversight controls between the two ordinances. For safety outcomes, the city’s Bloomington-Monroe County Crash Data Dashboard draws on the Indiana State Police crash-data repository, which BMCMPO and GIS staff review and clean annually. That data description does not establish the specific comparison periods or results for 7th Street; the reported decline there is Cibor’s account to the council.
The bond ordinance approved this week appropriates up to $7 million, including earnings on bond proceeds before the money is spent, and McKim has described it as the first installment of a planned three-year borrowing cycle for capital improvements. Residents interested in how transportation design decisions get made can weigh in at the Bloomington Transportation Commission, which provides a forum for evaluating such choices and will hold a 5:30 p.m. public hearing on the College and Walnut corridor study on November 16.
