Bloomington council holds deliberation on outcome‑based budgeting, adds environment as a priority bucket

The Bloomington Common Council met Dec. 10 in a deliberation session focused on moving the city toward outcome‑based budgeting for the 2027 process and on identifying top priority outcomes, council leaders said. The meeting included staff briefings, a council ideation exercise and a brief public‑comment period.

Council member Piedmont Smith, who chairs the special fiscal committee, framed the approach as a three‑step logic: identify the outcomes the city wants to achieve, map programs that will deliver those outcomes, and then determine program costs. "The council passed a resolution in June 2024 regarding this," Piedmont Smith said, citing the council's prior direction to move toward outcome‑based budgeting.

Deputy Mayor Gretchen Knapp told the council the city's accounting software requires a top‑level category, which means it is feasible — and in some cases necessary — to create a discrete climate or environment category in the budget system. "The way the accounting software is set up, you do have to have a top level category," Knapp said, adding that staff have begun splitting some program lines to make tracking…