By: Diane Benjamin
Bloomington is going to raise your taxes. They can’t find cuts because everything they do is so vital to the City. Sure.
Let’s talk time.
How many staff hours were WASTED on Paradigm? Former Alderman Rob Fazzini was working behind the scenes to put the deal together before he resigned. The legal expenses alone were astronomical, but how much staff time was wasted? Then when a joint session was called with Normal’s City Council, most of Bloomington’s leaders didn’t show up. They knew it was dead but wasted more staff time anyway.
How about Giebelhausen? Tari is so desperate for a downtown hotel. a developer plotted to make millions and walk off leaving the City with nothing but a leveled block. The deal stunk from the beginning, but it dragged on and on anyway. More staff time wasted.
What deals are being wielded now? Renner ate lunch with Fazzini in June at your expense. http://blnnews.com/2015/07/24/junes-pcard-spending-fun/ Maybe more staff time can be wasted! Paradigm part II? Or, were you just having a friendly lunch at taxpayer expense?
Raising taxes is not going to work. Revenue is already down, with the Mitsubishi announcement it will drop more. The employees, who now don’t know what their futures will be, are going to pull back spending money. Only government keeps spending when money coming in is less than expenses. Raising taxes steals more money from citizens only making revenue a bigger problem. Why do so many retirees leaving Tari?
At the Mitsubishi press conference in Normal, Renner claimed “we have to keep moving forward”. To what Tari? Bike lanes? Downtown Hotel? Library expansion? Bankruptcy?
The front page of the City website is out of date. Simple things can’t be managed, “moving forward” only means more things won’t be handled well. The current City problems are an accumulation of past Councils not funding essential items like roads and pensions. They wanted to “move forward” too Tari. Thanks David Hales – aren’t budgets his job?
Get back to basics before more people leave and revenue plummets even farther.
Tari: The citizens are never going to accept what your hand-picked Budget Task Force reports. Stacking the committee with your supporters means nobody else was heard. When they return in September with a recommendation to raise taxes AGAIN, you will be finished.
Note to Steve Vogel: Last Saturday you did a nice column about IWU reorganizing to adjust to changing conditions. Did you notice IWU is the private sector? Did you notice they made it work? Now, do you see the difference between the private sector spending their own money and the public sector spending ours? Silly question, I’m sure it went right over your head.
Isn’t the city website maintenance under Communications? Is Nora sleeping on the job? If Tari doesn’t tell her to take care of it, she probably won’t, since she’s not professional or mature enough to do her job!
If progressives didn’t have double standards, they wouldn’t have any standards at all.
The Budget Task Force’s “Draft Proposal” for the Proposed FY 2017 Budget shows only $4M in reductions. I may be wrong, but I thought the budget gap was $7M. If you look at their suggestions for reductions, it’s for small ticket items. They need to be much more aggressive and leave public safety out of the mix. Snyder Companies CFO, Mr. Fodor, is already calling for tax increases. He should close his mouth and pay what his company owes the City first.
$7 mil is what they expect the State to cut next year. Renner was on WJBC this morning saying tax increases are standard in Normal and the County, they should be for the City too.
Tax increases are standard!?! Then the B/N EDC and City EDC (another duplication of resources) don’t deserve the office space they occupy. Just like citizens are going to reevaluate their spending during uncertain times, the City would be wise to do the same or it will be the Detroit of the Midwest.
Read Book 2 for the budget. Interesting stuff.
Book 2 for current FY?
2016.
Worker pensions and healthcare are huge factors pushing up our taxes. When will the city leaders and citizens wake up to the idea that we cannot afford luxuries like that. City workers get to accumulate sick days and have them paid out at the end of their careers. City worker pensions are simply out of line with what we can afford. Chicago and the state of Illinois are in the same position.
The fact of the matter is, that people can and will move from Bloomington/Normal once taxes go up to an unsustainable level. We are getting there really fast.