by:  Diane Benjamin

Tari Renner wants a hotel and conference center in downtown Bloomington.  Period.  Citizens have already paid $30,000 for a study that showed an $18,000,000 gap between what it would cost and what it will be worth.  Renner was not deterred.

Last night Renner claimed again that developers are flooding his office for information about downtown.  Renner has no concept of the private sector, other than government must help them.  Renner is a trained Democrat professor who firmly believes big government must exist to spur economic activity or none will happen.   He probably thinks government funded Microsoft and Google when they were startups.

Tari:  If you are getting so many calls, how about letting the free markets handle downtown?  Your study showed a downtown hotel is not feasible, how about waiting until there is a clear need and then letting the private sector build it?  How many conference centers does Bloomington need?  Is the Double Tree constantly booked?  Don’t groups use the Coliseum for a conference center?  Are you creating competition for the Coliseum dollars at a time when they can’t break even?

Last night Renner gave his usual speech about strip malls being dead and people want to live downtown.  He added some new material last night about Uptown Normal.  Watch the short video:

Normal spent $100,000,000 Tari.  Since Chris Koos is your role model, and you spoke of investment by government, you obviously have no problem with that.  Koos has raised property taxes, water rates, sewer rates, sales tax, food and beverage taxes, garbage taxes, probably more.  Uptown Normal is a balancing act highly dependent on the economy.  Of course, if the economy fails, Koos still has the citizens as his piggy bank.

Are you a piggy bank Bloomington?  SEVEN members of the Council who will vote for anything.  They didn’t care about forcing 3 new taxes on citizens.  They have their heads firmly underground about the decline Bloomington is suffering.   People are leaving Bloomington and the entire state of Illinois.  We aren’t going to stay here to pay pensions that were promised 30 years by politicians buying votes.

Renner mentioned people are flocking to downtown Chicago again.  Really Tari? Here’s link for you:  http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20140521/BLOGS02/140529935?template=mobile&X-IgnoreUserAgent=1  A .2 percent increase.  Wow.  Very impressive.  The growth in the suburbs was higher Tari.  Growth outside of Illinois was higher too.  Maybe you should study what they are doing.  Try taking Econ 101,  maybe at a different University though.