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 Sales Tax
.5% Food and Beverage Tax
6% Telecommunications Tax
Bloomington must be very embarrassed by their taxes. You have to dig for them.
Bloomington: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=142
4% Amusement Tax
2% Food and Beverage Tax
6% Hotel/Motel Tax
4 cents a gallon Motor Fuel Tax
4% Packaged Liquor
1.5% Sales Tax
3.75% Water
6% Telecommunications
1.9 cents per therm for out-of-state natural gas
3.75% for in-state natural gas
Electricity is a mystery:
| Electric | kilowatt per hour | .2777/.1366 | .4439/.2183 |
Can somebody start telling the truth?
Bloomington residents (and visitors) are already taxed to death!
Total Expenditures for Champaign 2015/2016 = $117,000,000 http://ci.champaign.il.us/cms/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/FY-2015-2016-Introduction.pdf Page 13
Total Expenditures for Bloomington 2015/2016 = $186,468,304 http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8224 Page 47
Champaign population: 81,055
Bloomington population: 76,610
Need I say more? Didn’t think so.
I wouldn’t trust them to run a laundromat. So much verbiage hides the truth well.
Very nice reporting. I wonder if Nora could help explain this? I’m sure her salary is part of the difference in expenditures!
One additional tax that both Bloomington and Normal impose…. If automobile is purchased by resident from dealer outside of town (not sure of percentage), a tax is imposed. I bought new vehicle in Roanoke, received dun in the mail a couple of months later.
That’s because the tax is built in to the final purchase price of any vehicle bought in town. Everybody pays it no matter where you buy the car.
Doesn’t matter where you bought it, as long as it was from a dealer. They hit you with that BS use tax. Normal does this crap as well. I use to stretch it out and make them send me 3-4 notices before I paid it. There is absolutely no reason that I should be required to pay another tax on a vehicle that I already paid sales tax on. Thank God I don’t live in Bloomington anymore!
Prof hasnt gotten around to taxing the air BLoNo ppl breath! OOOPS! I best not give him ideas
Why don’t we sell off/fire OUR clowns and hire the Champaign folks? Can Mr Hales answer ME that? NOW that would be GOOD city management! That’s simple enough that you DON’T have to be smatter then a 5th grader.
Triple-Taxin’ Tari is an idiot! There… I said it!
I see the tax differential between the two cities as an competitive advantage to tout. He sees another opportunity to pull our pants down. We’d be better off letting the mob run the town. I doubt they would shake us down this much.
Maybe I should start a local mob, seeing how Bloomington is busting at the seams with stupid people who don’t mind being robbed blind!
First, I’d need a consigliore. Mudd?
Hmmm, lemme think on it.