The city budget in Bloomington, Ill., is running a deficit. The Bloomington City Council is trying to find $3 million to close a gap in a $75 million spending plan. They think that increasing the city tax on packaged liquor is just the ticket.
In addition to raising the monthly garbage collection fee by $2, Bloomington officials want to boost the liquor tax from 2 percent to 4 percent. They say that would generate $300,000 towards the deficit. The also want to increase the penalty on retailers who are late in paying the liquor tax from 7.5 percent to 10 percent.
The city is looking at increasing the garbage collection fee because, while it costs Bloomington $5.9 million a year for its garbage program, the current fee only covers $1.5 million of the cost. The hike in collection fees would generate another $600,000.
To the casual mathematician it would appear that if everyone paid their fair share for garbage collection there would not be a need to raise other taxes.
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