Bloomington City Council voted Oct. 8 to approve an ordinance creating a mandatory business registry, according to the Pantagraph. In addition, the ordinance will increase 100 fees on licenses, inspections, permits and other occupational requirements.

The new registry will require businesses to pay a one-time $50 fee upon entry, and impose a $75 fine on businesses that fail to submit yearly registration renewals on time. Home-based businesses and certain charitable organizations are exempt from the entrance fee but are still subject to the $75 penalty.

The registry will include information such as the type of products sold at each business, the materials used in those products and contact information. According to the Pantagraph, the city will store this information for police and firefighters to access during emergencies. The city also aims to use the information to identify new businesses subject to local taxes, such as the food-and-beverage tax, or notify businesses regarding construction projects and road closures.

Beyond safety and tax-compliance precautions, however, the city also aims to use new revenues from the fee increases to help shore up Bloomington’s struggling finances. Bloomington’s current operating budget, approved in April, included a $2.9 million deficit. A portion of the estimated $400,000 in revenue generated under the ordinance will go toward narrowing that shortfall, according to the Pantagraph.

One cause of Bloomington’s budget woes is the growth in pension costs for local public safety retirees. An Illinois Department of Insurance report shows the city’s contributions to its police and fire pension funds have spiked substantially between 2015 and 2016, the most recent years for which data is available. The city’s – or taxpayers’ – contribution to fire pensions rose by nearly 12 percent during that time, while police pension contributions increased by nearly 24 percent.