By: Diane Benjamin
The real story of Bloomington is it is in a steep decline. We felt it, Moody’s confirmed months ago that Bloomington-Normal is in a recession.
Here’s more proof: http://247wallst.com/special-report/2016/09/22/cities-with-the-fastest-growing-and-shrinking-economies-2/7/
Bloomington was named the NUMBER ONE city in the country with a shrinking economy!
Note: this is 2015 – 2016 was worse!
Also note the last paragraph – how did median household income go up? Mitsubishi hadn’t closed, government employees got increases the private sector didn’t offer. 2016 results will likely tell a different story.
> 2015 GDP growth: -8.0%
> 2015 GDP: $9.37 billion
> Largest GDP detraction: Professional and business services
The Bloomington economy declined by 8.0% in 2015, a larger contraction than any other U.S. metro area. The professional and business services sector accounted for nearly all of the economic contraction in the metro area, shrinking by $945 million. According to credit ratings services firm Moody’s, the professional and business services industry in Illinois is heavily tied to manufacturing and may be losing ground as a result of a sluggish manufacturing industry nationwide. In Bloomington, the manufacturing industry shrank by approximately $20 million in 2015.
Despite reduced economic output, Bloomington residents are still relatively wealthy. The median household income increased from $57,594 in 2014 to $63,842 in 2015, one of the largest increases of any metro area.
Will Tari talk about this story?
(Not a chance, but he will wonder why tax receipts are down)
Median income is tricky to interpret. According to the city’s own demographic information, 40% of households have an annual income of less than $50,000. This City is beginning to look like a 3rd world country with a very large income gap and deteriorating infrastructure. Taxes are oppressive for that 40% but the Council refuses to recognize that fact.
Bloomington: Now “Venezuela On the Prairie”. (It was already “Berkeley On the Prairie” and “Sodom On the Prairie”.)
This should at least be part of the discussion about the economic future of our area, right? Why is not being talked about? Why is there not an all out effort to bring new businesses and new people into our area? No, I am not talking about subsidized hot dog stands and car companies who need someone to cut their grass for them. All of the businesses that currently drive our economy are being disrupted by technology. So we don’t need more of the same: banking, finance, insurance and education. We need 21st Century high tech companies that can bring money into our area or existing companies that made products or provide services. Are we going to wait for people to start leaving and for crime to skyrocket? Why does our leadership not even want to talk about what is clearly an economic crisis? But we talk about complete streets and building new libraries? I wonder if this is how the leadership in Detroit acted before their economy collapsed? Looks like we are going to find out….
The issue with the declining economy had been brought up multiple times during the past years by Alderman Lower. He was labeled a naysayer for suggesting fiscal responsibility to attract business. Renner just wants to spend money to revitalize downtown thinking it will attract people. Alderman Lower made the economy part of his campaign platform as a candidate for Mayor but was ridiculed by Renner. Over 50% of the voters (hope they were legal voters) voted for Renner. They are part of the wealthy residents referenced in the article. Renner’s IWU students also voted for him. The students won’t be around to pay off the debt or deal with the consequences.
Oh, Larry. SMH. What are you going to do if Rivian takes off? Or develops technology that ends up with widespread use? I’m screen capturing all of your comments for later use. It’s gonna be SWEET.
Bob is really Rob, I’m allowing his comment for future reference
I don’t know Rob. But I’m cool with that. Could go either way, right? Maybe Rivian will fail. The important thing is to see whether they meet the performance benchmarks to get the incentives from the Town and other taxing bodies. And see if the plant, which would have been demolished, can be put to yet another use.
How are they doing on converting iron to gold? If what you state is even vaguely true then investors would be busting down the walls to get a piece of the action.
You do know Trump is an oil supporter don’t you. Pretty hard to compete with oil and gasoline cars. GM had a great idea once called the 8-6-4 engine. Funny thing they no longer make them or want to even with better electronics today. It wasn’t the engine design it was the electronics.
I wish them the best but I’ll hold on converting iron to gold as more possibly happening.
Now if Renner and that Tax Farce Group would focus on the real issue of employment and growth just maybe they should have been looking toward the local higher education institutes to change to make it attractive for companies like Infosys to locate here instead of Indianapolis. Instead they want to willy nilly focus on that downtown dump as their garden of Eden of the economic mecca. Renner has never held a full time job so what the **** does he know. Hales, what does he know other than sucking on the tit of government jobs all of his life. Not a one of them could find their way out of a paper sack without having some consultant or group show them the way. So go ahead and be my guest to have the baker, candles stick maker and blacksmith be on that Farce Group.
Green Top is the second biggest scam inflicted on the naive “smart people” of BloNo – Rivian is the biggest, and yes I know, Time will tell, like it did in Florida and Michigan….and soon to be Normal, Illinois. Maybe they will change their name again (they already have done that twice) since there are plenty of other states and towns with empty buildings for them to scam and make a few million off of before everyone finally wakes up to what they are. Oh and yes, you can’t run a town on fast food chains, funded art galleries, and 1/2 empty hotels, oh, and a few “rich folk” places for the well heeled and affluent to gather and sip wine. The legacy of two terms of Renner will be very hard to overcome. If it wasn’t for State Farm, Country Companies and the Universities, BloNo would REALLY be in serious trouble and that median income would drop considerably as well.