BLOOMINGTON - With voters supporting a "living wage" for city employees and a tight budget predicted for the coming fiscal year, the Bloomington City Council "is between a rock and a hard place."

At a work session Tuesday, the council held its first lengthy discussion about the results of the Nov. 4 referendum in which voters said they want the city to pay its workers at least $9.81 an hour.

"This is the politician's dilemma: Do you do what the people want you to do or do you do what you think is the right thing to do?" Mayor Steve Stockton said. "We are between a rock and a hard place."

The "living wage" is the rate of pay someone needs to earn for a 40-hour work week to afford a single-bedroom apartment in the area. The minimum wage for Illinois is $7.75 an hour.

To raise the pay for the nearly 300 seasonal and part-time employees who currently fall below the $9.81 rate will cost roughly $400,000 in the first year. Most of the city's 650 full-time employees already earn more than that.

Stockton and aldermen agreed they need more information from voters on how they want the city to move forward on the issue. The referendum was nonbinding and does not require the City Council to act.

Choices to fund the living wage discussed by the council include reducing the amount of part-time and seasonal employees or reducing the hours those employees work, raising fees for city programs, cutting services or raising either the sales tax or property tax.

"In a 2-to-1 vote … the voters say that they want us to be compassionate about what we pay our employees," Stockton said, noting there was an 80 percent voter turnout in the referendum. "But it's not that simple."

Economic factors, including sales tax revenue that is flat or decreasing and the unexpected invasion of the emerald ash borer, will make it tough for the City Council to fund the living wage, city officials said. The city's ash trees - about 3,500 of them - will have to be removed over the next 10 to 12 years at a cost of about $300,000 a year.

Central Illinois Organizing Project petitioned to have the referendum placed on the ballot after a long battle with the council to get the city to pay a living wage, primarily for workers at the U.S. Cellular Coliseum.

Meanwhile, the McLean County Chamber of Commerce opposed the living wage increase for the city because organization members are concerned it will drive up labor costs in the community.