By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington city officials are waiting for Illinois State Police to finish an investigation before they can close the books on U.S. Cellular Coliseum’s previous owners.
City Manager David Hales told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin that’s the final piece to the city’s annual audit that otherwise gets a passing grade.
PODCAST: Listen to Scott’s interview with Hales on WJBC.
“Once that investigation is completed, we can close out the books for that Fiscal year 2016 and then publish the final financial statements,” Hales said.
An independent auditor presented its findings to the city council on Monday night. The city brought in State Police after discovering some irregularities in the Coliseum’s finances when Central Illinois Arena Management was turning the facility over to VenuWorks last year.
Online sales
Hales said online retailers are creating a two-fold problem for local officials who rely on the sales tax revenue from their brick and mortar counterparts.
“We are seeing sales tax revenue flat and that hurts us because when those kind of revenue sources are flat, no increase, and our labor costs go up, what gives?,” Hales asked.
Hales said online sales are also making it harder for economic developers to fill empty storefronts.
He added Congress should pass the internet sales tax to try to level the playing field. Illinois has such a tax but few people comply.
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
