- Hello and welcome to Cats Week. I'm Dave Walter. During the Bloomington City Council meeting on July 16th, Councilmember Isabel Piedmont-Smith spoke on the impact of the federal government's Big Beautiful Bill on Indiana residents. I've been reflecting on President Trump's so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which is
- a total lie as far as the title. But anyway, it's impact on the residents of Bloomington, my constituents and residents throughout the country is going to be devastating. People in Bloomington will go hungry. They will lose health insurance. Our children with special needs will lose in-school support funded through Medicaid. So I just wanted to go through a few of the major impacts.
- and kind of summarize what maybe we could do. So food assistance is being drastically cut. The bill includes cuts to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, that go into effect in 2028, conveniently after the midterm elections. Indiana could be on the hook for as much as $360 million a year to keep SNAP benefits intact for the 600,000 Hoosiers who rely on it.
- And I don't trust the General Assembly to budget that much money for needy families, even if they are able to, which maybe they won't be able to. Next, health insurance coverage. The bill slashes over $1 trillion from Medicaid, putting coverage for 650,000 Hoosiers on the state's Medicaid expansion plan at risk. Nationwide, nearly 12 million people are expected to lose health insurance coverage.
- In addition to the Children's Health Insurance Program, CHIP, Hoosier HealthWise, the Healthy Indiana Plan, HIP, the cuts also include the home and community-based support services waivers, which allow seniors and children with disabilities to receive care in their homes instead of being institutionalized. Medicaid services in schools will also be cut. For example, services related to individualized education programs, physical, speech, and hearing therapy,
- and behavioral therapy programs. Next category, energy costs. Because the bill cancels federal support for clean energy programs, the average energy costs for Hoosier households will increase by about $340 a year according to Energy Innovation, a nonpartisan energy and climate think tank, not to mention the impacts on our ongoing climate change disaster, which we see in flooding in Indiana.
- Next category is education. In my view, public education is essential in a democratic society. But this bill furthers the privatization of schools. The bill creates the nation's first federal voucher program to pay for private schools by way of a permanent and unlimited tax shelter. The voucher amount is still only a fraction of the average private school tuition cost in the US, making it highly likely that it will only serve to benefit families that already send their children to private schools.
- but will do little to expand access to lower-income families. In addition, the aforementioned Medicaid cuts mean schools will struggle to get reimbursed for services and supplies for students with disabilities, which are required by law under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. So instead of education, healthcare, and food for needy Hoosiers, what is this bill spending our tax dollars on? Well, number one, tax cuts.
- Wealthy Americans would benefit far more from the tax package than those on lower income levels, according to the Tax Policy Center analysis. Big boost for military spending. The US military will receive a budget increase of $150 billion under the bill. They already receive a giant portion of our budget without this. Among other things, the money will be used to fund Trump's Golden Dome Missile Defense Project, which many experts say is not even feasible.
- and huge, huge increase in the budget of ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. By allocating $100 billion to that agency, they are increasing it many, many folds. The ICE budget is currently $8 billion, so $100 billion extra for ICE.
- Plus, the bill puts $46.5 billion toward a border wall construction, which many experts have said, again, does not really address the problems of immigration system. Congress needs to pass immigration reform. These ICE and wall investments will not actually address the problems in our system. Piedmont Smith wrapped up her statement by stating that the bill will ultimately hurt Americans. Lots of dubious spending and tax breaks for the rich. The result?
- Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill will add $3.4 trillion to federal deficits over the next 10 years. This big ugly bill will hurt America and will hurt Americans. The purpose of government is not to enrich the oligarchs at the expense of everyone else. Government can and should uphold the social safety net, spread the tax burden fairly, and allow children equal access to quality public education.
- It should protect us from the real enemies, poverty, hopelessness, lack of opportunity, climate change. Instead of wasting our money on battling fake enemies, such as the immigrants who enrich our communities. As you, your friends and neighbors, feel the impact of this big ugly bill in the coming years, remember who created it and who voted for it. Donald Trump, Representative Aaron Houchin,
- Senator Jim Banks, Senator Todd Young. These representatives do not care about the wellbeing of average Hoosier families. Tell them as you experience negative impacts. Oppose them in the next elections. In the meantime, dig deep and support your community by volunteering, advocating, and donating to organizations that are trying to keep hope and people alive in Monroe County.
- Also during the meeting, the Council heard a resolution to amend the Unified Development Ordinance to allow single-room occupancy buildings as a permitted use in residential buildings. The resolution directs the City Plan Commission to look into and begin to define what the permitted use would look like. Council President Hopi Stasberg explained that the Council already approved the resolution in 2024, but due to a miscommunication, the working group was not established in time.
- Piedmont-Smith acknowledged concerns about single-use occupancy that members of the public had previously expressed. I did attend remotely the portion of the Planning Commission meeting on Monday where they did talk about the SRO proposal brought forward by Planning Transportation staff. And I do think if the proposal needs work, I think there are some real concerns among neighbors and among people who are just concerned about resident safety.
- So I think that the planning staff is consulting with city legal and is consulting with people who spoke up and people on the planning commission to revise their proposal and bring it again in August. So I think that there is a real concern that allowing a single room occupancy building in a residential neighborhood will
- be no different from allowing multiple people just to live in a rental house. What is the difference, really? So I think that needs to be distinguished either with a cap on the lease amount or with some specification that in some communities, for example, it has to be run by a nonprofit. In some communities,
- The owner must live there if it is in a single-family neighborhood or a largely residential neighborhood. I don't even like to use single-family because that's not what I'm going for overall. But there are some concerns about just packing houses full of people, whether or not that may be safe for the people living there.
- And so that's something I think that is going to be worked on in the coming weeks. So I do want to say I'm listening to those suggestions. The resolution itself doesn't go into that level of detail. It says, please consider a list of things. It doesn't say, here's the language we want you to enact. So the resolution at this point is just asking them to consider certain things. The same things we asked them to consider in November. The council voted to approve the resolution unanimously.
- The Monroe County Public Library Board of Trustees met on July 16th and discussed potential cost saving plans for the 2026 budget following the passage of SB1. Library Director Greer Carson said the impact won't be as bad as originally expected. In January, we first heard about what SB1 was about and how it may have an impact on revenue, particularly by way of property taxes and local income taxes. But we didn't know how severe it would be.
- By late March, early April, we understood what the final bill was going to look like and that that impact was going to be $358,000 less in property tax revenue for 2026. And then it gets incrementally larger over the following two years by about 20,000 or so each successive year. And so we know what that reduction in growth is going to be. The question has always been, how are we going to absorb it?
- Carson said the library has explored multiple options, including changing staff pay and benefits, wage structure, and even closing one of the branches for a full day during the week. Reducing the collection budget and other smaller cost-saving ideas were also discussed. Our guiding principle has been whatever strategy we adopt, we want to minimize the impact on the public first and foremost, and we want to minimize the impact on staff however we can. The board discussed the proposed plan of closing the main library branch at 7 p.m. instead of 9 p.m., making its hours
- align with the other branches. Assistant Director of Public Services, Josh Wolf, said this change would not impact after-hours programs. Bookmobile Outreach Services are not part of this proposed change. Those services are so heavily weighted to the evening that we would really be impacting a ton of their patrons. We've already discussed that. They weren't part of the formulas that we worked with. That's the same off-site programs that we do outside of the building that are outside of those hours will not be affected, whether it's a
- school visits, open house nights, all those sort of things that we do with IU or the books on tap. So that won't be impacted either. Or cats. During the meeting, the IT department gave their annual report. IT director Ned Baugh said that within the past year, the department implemented a new patron messaging system and a new calendar app, adjusted backend permissions for library staff, and improved website accessibility.
- Board President Jamie Burkhart applauded the team for their efforts. I still think that's an excellent practice because you never know when someone's account would be compromised in just least restrictive environment. So I thank you for that. At the Richland-Beanblossom School Board meeting on July 15th, the board announced the resignation of six employees and the termination of another.
- One of the resignations was Assistant Superintendent Matthew Irwin, effective July 9th. Superintendent Jerry Sanders spoke about the impact of Matthew Irwin's resignation and how he believes his staff is talented enough to handle the extra workload evenly spread throughout the staff. We basically took all those responsibilities and signed them throughout the office. And in order to do that, we had to make adjustments to everybody's
- roles and responsibilities. And the two goals I had in mind was one, to continue to be efficient. We want to make great decisions for our school corporation. But we also wanted to save some money in consideration of
- a financial situation that all school corporations are finding themselves in right now, that we wanted to make sure that we were taking this opportunity to be cost effective so that we can better pay our teachers, so that we could better provide programs and services to our students, but at the same time,
- continue, like I said, the great momentum that our school corporation has had. And really, sometimes I wish that I could put a camera in a room because when this group here in this office sat down and we had these conversations, it was just an amazing conversation. Nobody knows better how to do the job
- of providing corporation-wide leadership than the people in this office. And to hear them talk about what our needs truly are, it ended up enabling us to make the best possible decisions. Board member Jimmy Dernal had glowing words to say about the district staff. I agree with Larry. I see a lot of long-time loyal employees here. That really warms my heart that we can
- take up the slack and be a better school system because of it. So thank you, Jerry. Thank you, Jennifer, for working this out. Also during the meeting, the board agreed to revisions made to several policies, one regarding drug and alcohol testing for employees, and the other regarding school snacks and nutrition. If you'll remember, at the June school board meeting, I presented these two policy revisions as a first reading. Policy 4162 is
- drug and alcohol testing of CDL holders and other employees who perform safety sensitive functions. It's really being revised at the direction of the Indiana State Police who do the inspections on our buses and suggested that
- our policy was not in line with their protocols. So we made those revisions. We also made revisions to policy 8510, which is the wellness policy recommended by the Champs Committee, and it better aligns with the USDA Smart Snacks in school nutrition standards. Ferguson Law has reviewed both policies for compliance and so
- I recommend your approval. The Bloomington Board of Public Works met on July 15th to discuss a request for the extension of a permit allowing construction of the Western sidewalk on North Dunn Street. Engineering Field Specialist Kyle Baw from Bloomington Engineering described the situation further. We have a kind of a mirror situation here.
- So upon our discussions yesterday got in contact with Wilhelm on this request for the Western sidewalk on North Dunn Street adjacent to the Poplar's development project and
- They still wanted to request a longer extended period of time for that sidewalk to be closed Did emphasize that we would not support that request? So for the time being they wanted to you know Just get something in place so they could get their ducks in a row and you know come back with a different plan so what they came back with was a Requesting an extension of this sidewalk closure and metered parking reservation to August 25th the same as the Grant Street side of this year and
- Public Works Director Adam Wason emphasized that another extension will likely be granted during the next meeting. The board also discussed a contract with milestone contractors for ADA ramps to be installed and or repaired in multiple locations. Wason described the locations where the ramps would be located.
- These new curb ramp locations will be on South Lincoln at Davis, Dixie, Dodds and First and then East Cottage Grove at North Dunn, North Grant, North Lincoln and North Washington. Milestone contractors had the lowest bid for the project at $121,800 and the contract was approved. Wason also called attention to the difficulty taking place at the Animal Care and Control Facility, which is currently at capacity.
- Wason urged the public to consider volunteering, donating, or perhaps adopting a pet, while also stressing the responsibility which comes with adopting a pet. What we're encountering is a lot of individuals that are no longer able to care for their animals for a number of reasons.
- Whether it's cost age ability moving et cetera. But you know when we bring animals into the home that's the forever friend and we mean that and you know there are always extenuating circumstances but just want to highlight that responsible pet ownership is a very important aspect of the overall animal care and control activities of the city. But if you're in looking for that adoptable pet whether cat dog or
- The Bloomington Board of Public Works will meet again on July 28th.
- The Ellisville town council started their meeting on July 14th by explaining that the chat feature will be disabled for zoom participants in the near future. Council member Scott Oldham said it has to be disabled in order to comply with state law. There's just simply no way for us to comply with the law and allow the chat function to continue to work. So just for everyone's knowledge, it wasn't something we were dining. I'm sorry. We're doing maliciously. It's again, just because of the way the records keeping laws being interpreted by the state.
- During supervisor comments, Fire Chief Kevin Patton told the council the roof of the fire station on State Road 46 is leaking. When it rains, it leaks inside. We've had a couple people look at it. The decking is starting to delaminate, which is also destroying the shingles on it. So we need to replace that. Rough guess, they're giving me some numbers at 150,000 on the high side.
- Patton said the department could finance the project for three years using their cumulative and equipment funds and leave cash reserves for incidental expenses, such as a new fire truck engine. I was going to put that in the budget for next year. If you guys are good with it, I would like to actually maybe start that this year. I do have the funds this year to cover a payment. I would just need to do an additional appropriations for that, but the funds are in the line now.
- The council decided it is best to fix the leak now rather than wait and add it to the 2026 budget. Next up, town manager Mike Farmer said the town is starting the 2026 budget process. He suggested planning a work session before the August 25th council meeting. We're trying to make the date early enough that no Elk can meet our deadlines for getting in the gateway and running through the process. So we make sure we're square with the state. The next Ellisville town council meeting will be July 28th.
- The Monroe County Board of Health met for a special session on July 14th to receive feedback from the community on their new proposed public comment policy. Chairperson Aurora Diorio began the meeting by reading a prepared statement concerning public comment. I do have a statement I would like to read just to start us off. This meeting is for the purpose of receiving comments from members of the community who would like to give input
- on the draft public comment policy for the Board of Health. The draft has been posted online for a few weeks for public viewing. If you haven't seen it and you're here in the room, there are a limited number of printed copies on the table and back. By way of background, the Board of Health has never had a formal policy concerning public comment. Rather, we've operated for decades with an informal procedure
- of allowing public comment at all regular board meetings with speakers able to discuss any topic for a three-minute period. This new draft further describes procedures for speaking both in person and virtually at our board meetings, reinforces the board's commitment to receiving input from the public, creates a new method for receiving input through our email address, and sets standards of conduct for speakers.
- Anyone making comments in person today will need to please sign the sheet at the podium. Those making comments on the live stream will need to raise their hand and when recognized must state their full name and turn their camera on. We will alternate between speakers in the room and speakers online. Each speaker is limited to three minutes. Comments may not include disrespectful or obscene language.
- and may not be directed toward any individual board member or health department staff member. Please consider this statement when making your comments. Focus on the issue. Challenge ideas, not people. A member of the public, Ernie Frazzo, gave the only public comment. He questioned the timing of public comment, believing that it should be at the end of the meeting. One question I would still have is at what point you would take public comment based on
- One, agenda items, and two, for non-agenda items, because I feel that the public should be able to comment during an agenda item consideration. And then at the end, for all other items not on the agenda. After no other speakers presented themselves for public comment, the meeting was adjourned. And that's all for Cats Week. Thank you for joining us. For Cats and WFHB, I'm Dave Walter.
- about this thing is what it looks like and where I found it. In the spring or early summer of 83, my brother and me started to take on the job.