By: Diane Benjamin
Of course the Bloomington City Council passed everything Tari Renner wanted last night. It’s all going to be great. Public Comment was stacked with former officials and friends of government who proclaimed the $1,400,000 land purchase brilliant, the east side TIF brilliant, and the downtown hotel brilliant. Except for the one guy who warned about TIF’s with facts. Of course he was ignored. Watch his comments below.
Alderman Hauman stated that as a kid she moved many times. Her mom always looked for the best schools. Then she voted to take money from District 87 by TIF. Brilliant!
TIF financing is not a sure deal. Proof is located a little south of Bloomington in Lincoln Illinois. Their redevelopment TIF doesn’t generate enough money to cover the bond payments. Therefore, money is being transferred from their General Fund into the TIF to make the payments.
This is a line item from their current budget : (Page 23)
Yes, it’s only $108,209 – but their total budget is less than an EIGHTH of Bloomington’s – around $25,000,000.
So multiply that $108,000 by 8 to see what the same would look like in Bloomington. Then consider Bloomington is talking about 2, maybe 3 TIF districts.
See the budget for Lincoln here: 2015-302 WORKING BUDGET FY 15-16
Taxpayers of Bloomington WILL pay for Renner’s folly if the TIFs don’t create enough revenue to pay the debt.
Bloomington could have a downtown hotel and put the Chateau out of business all at the same time. Then more incentives will be needed to get another chain to buy it. Government development is a vicious circle of solving messes they created, just look at the Coliseum.
Renner will PICK what he wants on the property they bought last night. It’s already a done deal, they just didn’t tell you what the plan is. Expect more taxpayer money going to a private business.
Brilliant!
I’m sure nothing will go wrong, just like every other project Bloomington has tried!
Hit play to hear about TIFs – lots of other people commented too before and after Joe Walden. (I don’t know Joe, hopefully I spelled his name right)
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Quite apparent that Renner and crew are ramrodding all this before they are voted out of office next round.
Did Kirk, the owner and scrapper of the hospital property, threaten to parcel out the land or was that just a straw man thrown out by Renner? With its present zoning, it would be difficult to parcel out the land without city approval – no need for the city to own it to guide development.
See my next post!
The worst issue is how the city will pay for the property. Listen to Mr. Hales explanation.
1. A mortgage 2.Diipping into reserve funds. One of the reason taxes were raised was to replenish the reserve fund balance.
Keep in mind the new revenue within the TIF district will NOT be put into the general fund which provides for city services. Any increase taxes due to the increased property value from the hotel will not be available for 23 years. At 65% occupancy, the hotel tax revenue is less than $400,000.00/year–also to be funneled to pay for the bond. Additionally, sales and food/beverage taxes within the Business District to be formed as part of the project will be used for bond payments. The interest on the hotel bond will nearly double the original cost of the city’s investment. The city will NOT see the financial benefits that are being projected until far into the future.
There will also be millions of dollars of new bonds issued for capital improvements and infrastructure.