By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington mayor Tari Renner said the city has played a key role in bringing a number of businesses to the city during his four years as mayor.

Economic development has been a key issue in Renner’s re-election bid against alderman Kevin Lower who has said the city should roll back taxes and be more business friendly.

Renner told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin and Patti Penn the Ovation-10 dine-in movie theater, Green Top Grocery and the stores that now occupy the Empire Crossing Shopping Center wouldn’t be there if it were up to his opponent.

PODCAST: Listen to Scott and Patti’s interview with Renner on WJBC.

“(Lower) has never gotten a single ordinance passed, he has never even proposed an ordinance in working with his colleagues,” Renner said. “I’ve had hundreds of them, including rewriting our liquor code, etc. I could train a parrot to say ‘We need to prioritize.’ ”

Renner added the city has quadrupled street resurfacing spending in his four years in office. Lower has said the city should do more to fix the city’s streets and cut spending in other areas to pay for it.

Renner defends the tax increases the city approved in his first term, including the one-cent sales tax hike last year, saying the money has to come from somewhere.

“There are no free lunches,” Renner said. “I’d like to be the ‘Candy Man’ or ‘Santa Claus’ and say ‘Sure, we’ll sell it for a dime and give you 50 bucks change.’ At the end of the day, at local level especially, we have to deliver services.”

The general election is next Tuesday.

Lower will join Scott at 7:10 a.m. Thursday.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].