The process will help determine the city’s spending priorities for the year ahead. It is also expected to be the planned point for fuller implementation of Bloomington’s priorities-based budgeting system, which is intended to organize spending discussions around identified community priorities rather than only around department-by-department requests.

What is scheduled

The city’s annual budget timetable places department budget presentations in the middle to latter part of August. The approved budget materials identify Aug. 17-27 as the 2026 window for the 2027 cycle, although the exact presentation dates should be checked against the current public-meeting calendar.

After the department presentations, the process is scheduled to include public budget hearings in late September. The Common Council is then expected to take final action in mid-October. Until Council action occurs, the 2027 budget remains a proposal and no individual spending item should be treated as approved.

The City of Bloomington, its departments, the Office of the Mayor and the Controller’s Office are among the city entities involved in the budget process. Department presentations will give the Council and the public a closer look at the requests that shape the proposed city spending plan.

The priorities under review

The city’s budget framework identifies six priorities-based budgeting categories: affordable housing and homelessness; economic development; public safety; community health and vitality; transportation; and high-performing government.

Those categories provide the framework for discussing how city resources could be directed across services and programs. The approved materials do not include the complete 2027 proposal or final department-level requests, so they do not yet establish which programs may receive more or less funding.

The city says the budget process also operates under state-law revenue constraints. That context will matter as officials weigh requests against available revenue and decide which priorities can be funded in the 2027 plan.

What the prior proposal shows

Bloomington’s proposed 2026 budget provides a fiscal reference point, but it should not be confused with the 2027 budget. The 2026 proposal listed general-fund revenue of $54,017,896 and expenditures of $65,206,660, producing a proposed general-fund deficit of $11,188,770. Across all funds, the proposed 2026 budget totaled $147,150,078.

Those figures describe the earlier proposal, not a confirmed 2027 shortfall. The approved source materials do not provide a 2027 deficit, a final 2027 total or specific tax or spending changes.

What residents should watch

The August department presentations are the next major step in the public process. Residents will have additional opportunities to review the plan during the late-September hearings before the Council considers approval in October.

The key information still to come is the full 2027 budget proposal and the department-level requests. Those documents will show how Bloomington’s six stated priorities translate into proposed spending and whether the city’s revenue limits affect specific services or programs. Until that information is released and the Council acts, the budget remains under review.