From Illinois State Rep. Jeanne Ives: As you are aware, agreements between the Executive Branch and labor unions representing state employees expired on June 30, 2015. The governor’s office has signed an extension until September 30, 2015 or whenever the parties reach an impasse in negotiations. This positive development allows additional time to reach agreement […]
By: Diane Benjamin Since Mayor Transparency is comparing Bloomington to surrounding cities in an attempt to raise the Sales Tax, let’s compare debt. The chart below is from Bloomington’s Budget – Book 2 – Page 62 http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8223 Part of this debt is for the NEVER used #5 Fire Station – see page 50 General Obligation […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari was on WJBC yesterday talking about the budget: http://cdn.stationcaster.com/stations/wjbc/media/mpeg/Tari_Renner__Bloomington_mayor-1438177885.mp3 He claims the City costs go up 2% every year, the County and Normal just increase taxes and its no big deal. He wants the same powers. Tari and the interviewers agreed that government isn’t run like a business. Nobody mentioned that maybe it […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington is touting itself as having a lower Sales Tax rate than surrounding communities. Of course, the reason for saying it is so they can raise theirs. Conveniently left out of the conversation is how many OTHER taxes each City has. Let’s look at Champaign http://ci.champaign.il.us/departments/finance/administrative-services-division/sales-tax-information-2/ 1% City Sales Tax 1.5% Home Rule […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin He is a self admitted socialist with a populist message. He thinks America has a 40 year history of destroying the middle class. He wants to “invest” a trillion dollars over 5 years in infrastructure. (What was the stimulus bill?) He wants to “invest” $5.5 billion employing young people. He want to end […]
By: Diane Benjamin Union employees at Mitsubishi Motors accepted a pay cut years ago. Why can’t City employees? This link shows the salary and benefits for 2014: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8482 Comparable to the private sector? Since payroll is a LARGE part of City expenses, how badly do the current employees NOT want to be on the chopping block? […]
