by:  Diane Benjamin

Besides trying to justify you paying for a hotel and conference center in downtown Bloomington, tonight the Council will be told how the City can save $200,000 a year.  You pay!

$200,000 is pocket change to the City.  $150,000 for flamingos, an estimated $250,000 a year for food and travel, $30,000 for the first hotel study and another $45,000 for a Phase 2 hotel study.  You get the idea.

The City wants to make homeowners pay for not only repairs to the sewer lines on their property, which they already do, but also repairs to streets and sidewalks caused by the repair.  It would only cost homeowners an estimated $8000.  Is that pocket change to you?

You can read the proposal here, starting on page 153:  http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=7039  As usual, government takes numerous pages to state the obvious.

I doubt the sewer lines in the exclusive newer subdivisions are going to break.  The people hit with an $8000 bill are going to be the people least able to afford paying, people in the older neighborhoods and people on fixed incomes.  Do you want streets and sidewalks repaired by homeowners with do-it-yourself materials because they can’t afford to hire a contractor?  Will the City do the repairs and bill the homeowners who have no hope of ever being able to pay?  Is the City going to put a lien on homes that can’t pay?

It’s long past time to discuss the role of government.  Instead of providing essential services, Renner and Hales want citizens to pay so they can spend money on pet projects.  I love how they justify changing policies:

c. Financial Burden 

 According to Mclean County records, there are approximately 26,000 property
parcels in the City. As previously indicated, the average cost to repair a sewer service
is approximately $10,000. By accepting responsibility for all sewer services in the
public right-of-way, the total financial liability to the City will be about
$260,000,000.

If every sewer line in the City breaks in one year and it costs $260,000,000 – the City has MUCH bigger problems!

If any member of the Council votes at a future meeting to enact this change, it will clearly show they are voting against the interests of the most vulnerable among us.  Are the potted plants smart enough to realize it?

Exactly what is the City thinking even proposing this lunacy?

Got your flamingo yet?

.

.

.