By: Diane Benjamin
The assault on Bloomington taxpayers continues at Monday’s City Council meeting. The target isn’t on citizen’s backs – it’s on their wallet and their Quality of Life. Other people need your money more than you do – the City Council will gladly hand it over and claim Economic Development!
Is Kroger really going to not build 2 blocks away from their current location without your money?
Is Sam Leman Toyota going to move out of Bloomington if they don’t get your money?
You haven’t heard that one?
Kroger is back because their plans have slightly changed – they actually want a little less money. THEY DESERVE ZERO! Moving across the street is going to happen anyway, Bloomington is just an easy mark because under Renner EVERY project has been subsidized. He relishes being the guy everybody runs to for money. King Renner thrives on redistributing your wealth to people who don’t deserve it. Being a professor, he has NO concept of capitalism – Invest your own money and fail or succeed on your own!
Sam Leman Toyota sees everybody else getting money, so they want some too! They claim Toyota is demanding they build a better dealership. That is immaterial. They just bought the dealership from Dennison, it’s theirs to run with their own money.
EXCEPT:
They want help building just east of Quick N EZ on Morrisey, but they need $700,000. Work needs to be done to the property before they can build. The City documentation claims these cost are extraordinary, and therefore you need to foot the bill. (They need to address a sanitary sewer line running through the property and storm water runoff)
Let’s say you really want to buy a cute house but the entire kitchen needs ripped out and re-done. The house has been sitting vacant for YEARS. What do you do? I would subtract the price of a new kitchen from what the seller is asking and say “take it or leave it!”.
Instead of offering less for the property, Leman wants you to pay the difference! Brilliant move. The property has been sitting undeveloped for how many decades?
Since Greyhound Properties (the listed owner) had the second installment taxes sold at sale, one would think they want it sold. See the property on the County website Here
Greyhound Properties claims an address in Colfax, but the LLC Managers live in Alabama. Does that mean any profits from the sale are going to Alabama?
Are more Toyotas going to be sold because Leman has a new dealership? Maybe, but it also means that less Nissans, Chevys, and Hondas will be sold. The number of new vehicles sold every year is a finite number. Tax receipts aren’t going to pour into the City.
Citizens will pay more in taxes in order to pay from everything else Leman won’t be paying for. (and Kroger, and Greentop, and Dicks Sporting Goods, and, and, and, . . . .)
See the documentation for the meeting HERE
The only way to stop crony capitalism in Bloomington is to put different people in charge!
Think sitting out the local elections is an option? It isn’t.
If it is on the agenda, it’s a done deal.
Tax dollar spending is to be used for government function. Of course this deal will become an ordinance, making it “legal.” I can understand that the sewer main would be the responsibility of the city but any other drainage remediation during development of the site should be the responsibility of Leman.
http://www.ilga.gov/commission/lrb/con8.htm
http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2014/11/05/sick-of-politics-more-than-100-illinois-public-officials-fled-their-positions-rather-than-face-these-watchdogs/2/#30e3c045301d
Now the Leman’s want a hand out! Maybe they should think about selling some of their land they bought in Funks Grove township a number of years ago if they still have it. We aren’t talking coin change here but millions of dollars worth as I recall. I know darn well they bought a chunk of land from Tom Braid and that was over a million. I don’t recall what year it was. Does someone have a land plat book to check this?
Some people have been known to run some property ownership thru a church. Which I think is a crock and the government should put a stop to that. Sorry to say but I am a supporter of taxing churches. Now you know one of the reasons why. Its time they pay their fair share.
I was always told one of the conditions of the Dennison Ford dealership was that Toyota wanted the new dealer to build a new show room. I also heard that was always a hindrance in selling. He could find buyers but no one to meet what Toyota wanted done.
I recall the grocery chain who bought Cub Foods at one time also owned Jewel and they had to sell the Jewel stores otherwise they would be running a monopoly. Is Leman’s running a monopoly?
So if Leman’s knew they had to build a new showroom and service facility when they bought Dennison out they evidently knew at the time what it was going to cost them and they were committed to it. Why of course they won’t divulge to the public what the Dennison purchase agreement was and the requirements from Toyota if it’s true. No doubt the city will fold and give them what they want.
It makes voting them out easier!
What kind of a scam are they running. Either B-N is “prosperous,” thereby justifying an endless string of tax increases, downtown hotel, etc. OR B-N is NOT “prosperous,” thereby justifying tax incentives and bailouts to get businesses to stay or locate here. They talk out of both sides of their mouths. Whichever narrative suits their latest scam. What a bunch of liars and crooks.
It’s very disappointing that now every business seems like they’ll be coming to the city for their sales tax handout. It appears Renner and Koos will continue to abate taxes at the promise of temporary construction jobs. It’s not like Leman is signing an agreement that they are hinging their abatement on guaranteeing 20 new jobs. It’s not like Kroger is signing an agreement saying they guarantee to create more jobs. I also doubt that either of these projects is going to draw new people and new sales tax dollars to the community.
What happens if these projects go belly up? What are they going to do if Meijer or Jewel, both within a stone’s throw of the new Kroger come for a new abatement under the threat of leaving?
Does anyone in Bloomington or Normal government actually believe that Kroger or Leman would have closed up shop and left without these incentive agreements? Would those shopping at Kroger just stop going to the grocery store if it closed, or would they go elsewhere?
Well said.