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Last updated on Friday, January 26, 2018
(BLOOMINGTON) - Mayor John Hamilton announced yesterday that he will seek approval from the City Council to reset the rate for the City’s Cumulative Capital Development Fund (CCD).
The CCD is used to fund much needed maintenance and installation of City sidewalks, streets, and trails.
The CCD is funded primarily by property taxes, and the Indiana state legislature has established a maximum rate of 5 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. However, the legislature also established an indexing requirement: for growing communities such as Bloomington, the rate is reduced as the community grows. The impact of this indexing was to produce the same amount of funds each year, thereby penalizing growing communities.
As communities are allowed to reset the rate periodically, Mayor Hamilton is now requesting that City Council approve a resetting of Bloomington's CCD rate to the original rate. The current rate is 4.8 cents, which produces approximately $1.7 million dollars per year. By resetting the rate back to the original 5 cents the City will receive approximately an additional $100,000 per year.
Mayor Hamilton stated, "We will prioritize using these funds for the installation and repairs of the City's sidewalks. Any remaining funds will be used to repair and maintain city trails." He continued, "It is our intention to resurrect a program used a number of years ago, in which the City partners with eligible homeowners for the repairs of sidewalks adjacent to their properties. The City will supply the labor for the repairs and the property owner will pay for the materials."
For a homeowner with a property that has a net assessment of $50,000, the impact of the requested rate reset would be approximately $1 per year. The City Council will consider this issue in February.
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