By: Diane Benjamin
The City of Bloomington has a long record of making bad deals. MILLIONS were thrown away on an unused Fire Station. Probably MILLIONS more were thrown away on an unused water tower – someday I may FOIA the actual cost. The Coliseum is a disaster sold to citizens as never costing a cent, Instead, bond payments can’t be made from Revenue, the statements issued by the management company aren’t close to accurate (but the media reports them anyway), and the real losses are huge.
But this Council is so smart they won’t make the same mistakes.
Consultants were hired for other projects, they were wrong.
This Council thinks their consultants know what they are doing.
So did past Councils.
Here’s one of the things on the agenda for Monday night:
The documentation says development won’t happen without municipal assistance. Guess what that means! Here’s more:
Another TIF means taxpayers get fleeced as the properties are improved and the addition revenue is diverted to whatever the City wants. It won’t be the General Fund!
$1,400,000 to purchase a property the private sector should be developing instead of government.
Renner claims the City is on solid financial footing (thanks to tax increases) but it’s rapidly disappearing into developing his much-loved downtown.
The east side will have a huge TIF district, another huge TIF will be required for Giebelhausen and this property. Decades from now taxpayers may see some benefit. Meanwhile developers will get paid handsomely playing on Renner’s downtown hopes and dreams.
Anybody want to guess what state Renner will retire to when he’s done playing downtown developer?
Taxes and debt will make things very uncomfortable for him here.
See the packet for Monday here: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=242&parent=9534 Page 169
It is behavior like this by Renner and Hales that diminishes their credibility. One year ago there was $7M deficit. Where is the $1.4M budgeted in FY2016? The Budget for FY2017 has not been approved yet–of course the proposed budget has increased by 11%. FY2020 is currently projected to have a structural deficit. It is spending like this which causes the structural deficit to begin with.
Another issue is the government deciding what kind of development should go where.
How many citizens want the government to use their tax dollars to decide what their neighborhood should look like?
The answer: people who think government does things right.
I don’t believe citizens are aware their tax dollars are being used for this purpose. They just think some developer wanted to build there according to zoning codes and payed for the property and construction. Clueless in Bloomington!
let the Kirk family partner with IWU, If IWU is even interested. Or make another large parking lot for the rental cars like at the old GTE site.. NO taxpayer $$. This mayor is like a cowboy with ten dollars on a Friday nite…gotta spend it!
I hear there is another Kroger deal in the works. Moving from Main St(?) to there. The IWU kids are tired of dodging cars.
This will be the assault on the Main Street Corridor. IWU wants this area to be “their” campus town.