By: Diane Benjamin
Does anybody else laugh at the New York state commercials? You know, the ones promising new businesses will pay no taxes for 10 years if they move or start a business in New York. Evidently Democrats (NY is run by Democrats) really do know low taxes increase economic activity and create jobs. What does New York know that the rest of the BLUE party doesn’t? Maybe it’s okay for corporations to not pay their fair share?
Bloomington could learn from New York, listening Tari? Those are your people out in New York – maybe they will loan you an economists or two.
Tonight the Bloomington City Council will hold a Committee of the Whole meeting with area legislators. You won’t be able to watch it because it is not being held in the Council chambers. Lamenting lack of money for essential services will be the hot topic. Illinois’ finances got flushed by Blago and Quinn and the last Constitutional Convention (Con-Con). Pensions are destroying budgets on State and local levels.
Finally Illinois has a Governor who is hacking everybody off, including Hales and Renner.
Expect Renner tears since Bloomington may lose $3,792,195.
See page 14 – written by David Hales: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8470
Let the government game begin: Scare the citizens. I really thought David Hales was smarter than this, or maybe Tari wrote it.
Horror!
The Rauner cut of $3,792,195 means Bloomington has to lay off 24 firefighters and 27 police officers. Houses will burn and mass shootings will plague Bloomington because Rauner cut our share of the wealth! Sure.
Maybe $2.5 million shouldn’t have been spent on the Coliseum in the current budget. Maybe the BPCA shouldn’t receive $500,000. TWO line items and I’m already to $3,000,000. Of course having a real discussion on whether citizens want Police and Fire or entertainment isn’t allowed to take place in Bloomington!
Normal doesn’t allow any employees other than Police and Fire to accumulate sick days and get paid for them at retirement. Bloomington allows ALL employees to accumulate sick days. Rauner is making tough decisions, Bloomington won’t make any unless it involves raising taxes and fees. Telling employees the big pay days are over won’t happen because Renner is no Rauner.
Another budget has been approved without serious thought to reducing spending as revenues decline. Cuts submitted by aldermen to Tari and Hales were ignored and will never see daylight. Raising your garbage fees will probably come back again and again until the Council agrees. Expect a bill from the City when somebody drops a refrigerator on your curb.
Rauner is forcing Illinois to stop playing sugar daddy for causes wanting easy dollars. Bloomington should face to same fate, but raising taxes is easier. It didn’t work for Illinois and it won’t for Bloomington. The next 2 years of Tari will show that he has learned nothing from how our State has been mismanaged. Threatening public safety has always won because citizens want to believe the elected work for them. How is Illinois working for you?
Two other items tonight show the absurdity of local government. First, Renner and Hales want prevailing wage requirements exempted from projects under $20,000. State law requires paying prevailing wages for EVERY government project – including schools. This law was nothing more than a bow to unions who don’t want to be underbid by a non-union shops. Free markets don’t exist in Illinois, therefore every project cost citizens more. I’d really like to know what project is less than $20,000?
Next, the City wants to complain about IDOT spending in District 5. See this comment on page 36:
Recommendation: IDOT is one of the biggest customers for the local construction industry, and less funding means less jobs. Strongly encourage IDOT to responsibly fund vital infrastructure projects within District 5.
(recommend grammar 101)
Imagine how many jobs would be created if prevailing wage wasn’t forced. Imagine how competition for jobs would drive costs down. Imagine unions not dictating how much taxpayers are forced to pay. Imagine law makers spending responsibly instead of bowing to unions for campaign contributions. Imagine not living in Illinois, because none of the above is going to happen here.
By the way – watch year eleven in New York.
Absurdity of local government? “Renner and Hales want prevailing wage requirements exempted from projects under $20,000.” How is this absurd? True, I’d like to see how they think they can get away with this move — but it’s a very conservative path to take and a ballsy move to push back the state government. I’m not understand where you think this is absurdity of local government?
Walking across the street cost government more than $20,000. Either go big or go home.
Love Rauner? He won’t be able to cut enough to fill the deficit. He’s also cutting the budget on the backs of poor people. Many elderly in nursing homes depend on the State to support . How about the people he’s giving jobs to at twice the pay the position paid under Quinn? You’re right, we haven’t seen nothing yet. The worst is yet to come. You’re not going to turn around a problem that took decades to create by cutting funding to programs that help the state. You want to save money? Make things more streamlined. There is an incredible amount of waste just due to inefficiency. Go to any website run by the state and discover how useless it is, not to mention the fact that it looks like a 16 year old made it and we probably paid a million dollars for it. And don’t give me the evil democrat garbage like they controlled the state forever. We had 20 years of republican governors that ended in 2003. The state senate was republican controlled from 94 until 2002. The problems in Illinois didn’t start in 2003. Sorry to burst your bubble.
People have been warning for years that the budget is unsustainable. Rather than make some small and slightly painful cuts, politicians kicked the can down the road. So now we are at the point where we have to make very painful cuts. And of course the lower income will bear the brunt because they are most dependent on government. When it comes to fighting the unions for decreased pensions or cutting funding for lower income people, the lower income will always lose. They don’t have a powerful lobby that has bought all the representatives.
Now that being said, I’m sure Rauner can find something else to cut. It’s a popular technique used by politicians — say something like, “well, my only choice is to murder kittens”. Then, two weeks later magically come up with a new idea that is not as painful but still not good (which was their main idea all along).
Yes, and the State of Illinois spent $1 million to place electric vehicle charging stations on Route 66! Another reason this state is broke! (information courtesy of The Parade in the Sunday Pantagraph. Note what other states are doing, especially Madision, WI).
Do you know I can drive down to Wapella to the Circle H western store and buy the same pair of boots that I can get at Eastland Mall and pay far less taxes. I can already drive to Peoria and get a pair of Red Wing boots at Moser’s way less than what I would get shafted here in Bloomington. The drive is worth it for me.
I’d like to see more local businesses outside B/N compete for the same business at a lower tax rate and see how B/N likes that. I wish someone would open a gas station outside B/N where they didn’t charge the additional tax too that B/N collects.
I wondered if the unions were behind the recent flier we got in the mail about IL bridges crumbling and for us to call Bill Brady and someone else and complain. Hmm someone must digging up some work for the taxpayers to pay for. Bridges, how about replacing Veteran’s Parkway. I swear they must be patching patches now. It’s that bad.
We had someone locally seal our driveway and we got into a discussion about union wages. I had a load of black dirt delivered from a Bloomington company that is union and the driver spouted off that he hoped our driveway would crack because we didn’t use union labor to replace it. I thought you a$$, see if I ever buy dirt from you again. Anyhow in our discussion he and I agreed why if you built a home using all union labor you could never afford it. I’m not totally against union’s but holy cow the hourly rates are outrageous. I quit calling one HVAC company just because of that. Charged me over $300 to re-connect a water line to a boiler and it was a straight shot and nothing fancy had to be done. I didn’t ask if they used real silver on the joints.
Now the schools and cities are screaming since Rauner is cutting back. I’m all for what Rauner is doing. It has long been over do. I’m sure if we had a Republican legislature in power we’d see even more cuts.
I see the entire report as manipulated by hysteria and statistics. Refer to the very end of the report (pages 49 and 50), “Vision 2025”, “Mission”, Core Beliefs” and “2015 Strategic Plan Goals” then compare the order of priorities to Bloomington’s current budget. There is a disconnect and hypocrisy based on half truths running through this report. The State of Illinois has mismanaged funds for years as has Bloomington. What other results would be expected beside budget deficits and potential tax increases. Continuing to blame the “great recession” for financial woes while increasing expenditures without adequate revenue is poor fiscal responsibility. It should be a good show tonight but a waste of time.
Evidently we have never recovered from a recession before. By the time this one is over, it will be time for another one.
Oh, I forgot–dinner on taxpayer’s money
Marc has it exactly right. I encourage clear thinking Conservatives to shop in the several lovely surrounding communities that don’t have a Leftist/Marxist City Council, don’t worship Political Correctness, down cram the militant “Gay” Rights agenda down our throats at every opportunity and remain respectful of small business, property rights and the 2nd amendment. God Bless Woodford County! BLM/NL has truly become a very hostile, sometimes even threatening enemy of our values. I say, vote with your dollars, “stick it to them” at every opportunity and be highly vocal about it.
I happened to catch the mayor elect of Pekin on TV right after the election this month and his goal was to be business friendly to the local businesses. I was hoping I could find a www link to the interview but I couldn’t find one.
I thought wow a mayor that has some business sense. I couldn’t find if he was a Republican or Democrat.
http://www.pekintimes.com/article/20140910/news/140919892/?Start=2
” Page 2 of 2 – McCabe said the city has to continue its work on infrastructure — roads and curbs. It is important to continue expanding economic growth, he said. A positive image is essential to do that, he said.
“We need to show central Illinois that we are a vital part of the region,” he said. “I think we have the things in place that can help us attract more businesses, especially for what I call head of household jobs. ”
Maybe the mayor and city manager of Bloomington need to get a clue to his goals.
There was an article in the Pantagraph about the retiring Normal Councilwoman. During her 25 year tenure she made sure the other parts of Normal were not neglected in favor of the Uptown development. Apparently, she helped maintain a balanced budget to establish a AAA rating prior to applying for the bond. Bloomington’s Council, Mayor and City Manager should take some lessons from her, too.
What? Crying’ about $3.7 mil loss in tax revenues? Well then as has been said, let me say it again,,,DON’T spend $8.5 mil on the downtown streetscape plan. DO send the pink flamingos back to the natural habitat. DON’T spend millions on Doug Farr sales brochures. DON’T cover the $14 mil for Renner’s hotel. DO sell the coliseum for whatever you can get. How about a take over the payments, sold as is deal? DON’T be stupid,,,. Whoops, too late. Keep the cops and firemen for years to come just by not spending so foolishly as has been the tenure of David Hales city management.
Oh you can bet the hotel will be coming up again for air. The white elephant lost the bid on the games played at the U of I while under renovation to Springfield. The news media was all over the fact that Bloomington didn’t have a nearby hotel putting the blame on that reason.
Bloomington has plenty of hotel rooms, just no attractions compared to Springfield. That argument is bogus. There may be other factors in play as well.
The powers to be at Bloomington think if they build it they will come. You’re correct about no attractions in Bloomington. Springfield has a good leg up on tourism. At Peoria nearby I see more stores opening in East Peoria along the riverfront. I was surprised to see this last Saturday a new Target and Gordman’s I believe it was. I can remember when that area was nothing to speak of.
Instead of Bloomington looking downtown how about getting that old Eureka plant leveled and redeveloped. Even a few surrounding eyesores need to go too. Now there are some attractive sites close to downtown worth seeing. Huh I meant to avoid.