By: Diane Benjamin
Mayor Tari Renner is telling everybody that 58% of residents rate Bloomington: Good. They did a survey.
Tari missed that 42% DON’T think it’s Good.
Look at the actual numbers:
- Only 601 people participated.
- Only 349 people rated the City as Good
Tari could have gotten that many students at IWU to take the survey!
Who were the 349 residents? Who were the 252 who didn’t rate the City as good? Does the City know?
The 100 people citizen summit is tomorrow night. (Sorry, I said 90 a week or so ago-the mayor is inviting 10 people too)
I’m sure they will be told the City is great – now pick what taxes should be raised. Normal passes any increases they want, Tari wants to be Bloomington’s Chris Koos.
The Delphi method will be deployed:
- A limited number of revenue options will be available
- Cutting expenses won’t be one of them
- These 100 people must recommend the best tax increase
- The Council will be told the people have spoken!
This website uses the same source Tari does to quote population: https://suburbanstats.org/population/illinois/how-many-people-live-in-bloomington
Bloomington population: 76,610
Under 21 population: 18,288
That means 58,322 adults
The City managed to get 601 of 58,322 to respond! Phenomenal!
That is less than 1.1% of the adult population.
Of the 1.1% that responded, .6% rated good.
That’s not overwhelming support Tari.
Sunday, the daily waste of newsprint published an editorial decrying Illinois population losses. It’s a warning sign! (one they have missed the last several years)
The editorial never mentioned Bloomington-Normal. It did mentioned the population loss has a devastating impact on tax revenue. The clueless writer fails to connect the dots. The author was anonymous, as usual.
Bloomington has reported tax revenue down.
Normal has reported tax revenue down.
Normal will pass tax increases to make up the difference. Koos is entitled to your money.
Is Bloomington entitled? Good thing elections are REALLY soon!
I’m dying to see Tari threaten the Council again this year to pass tax increases or he will veto the budget!
Get some popcorn and watch the charade unfold.
