By: Diane Benjamin
The Budget Task Force was ignored, so I have no idea why Tari is organizing another task force for downtown.
More interesting is who he appointed:
Justin Boyd – Tari’s campaign chairman
Tricia Stiller – head of the Downtown Business Association (DBA) that was supposed to be self-sufficient years ago. They still get subsidized by taxpayers.
Joe Haney – recipient of thousands of downtown TIF dollars
Carlos Robustelli – frequent free lunch buddy
Jamie Mathy – downtown business owner who campaigned on downtown spending
Kim Bray – New Council member who Renner and Painter recruited to run
Mike Manna – downtown business owner
Bobby Vericella – frequent free lunch buddy
Amelia Buragas – Renner’s Council pet who never says no to any spending
Who represents everybody else in the City?
Not one person!
It’s called a TASK force because with THIS crew doing the study it WILL be a TASK to come up with ANY sensible plan. But, leave it to these yahoos to come up with SOME stupid farce of a ideal! Maybe a desert sand theme park with Iive camels and stellate dunes???
Remember, Mathy and Buragas were on the Budget Task Force. Taxes will go up to pay for whatever this group comes up with. The excuse will be a structural deficit since revenue is flat. Bonds will be issued for the downtown water & sewer infrastructure. Renner can then claim the Streets 2.0 was another of his accomplishments along with restoring the brick streets (Is the 0.25% tax increase being used for the brick restoration?). The Task Force is to study the “downtown area” whatever that includes. North Main? Creativity Center? Warehouse district? There are empty buildings all over town not just near IWU.
This Task Force reeks of quid pro quo and conflict of interest. Buragas hosted Renner’s campaign activities in her home. Farnsworth for engineering!?! She is married to a VP of MCRPC, appointed by Renner. Remember the special, private meeting for the downtown “stakeholders” at Anjou Above? Mathy has several businesses downtown and lives within walking distance. Schmidt and Black live within walking/biking distance too. Schmidt’s husband was recently appointed to one of the downtown “commissions.” On and on…
We can spend as much as we want making downtown beautiful. We could really go crazy and make the whole town beautiful too. Nobody will move here unless there are good jobs. Decatur is a perfect example. Their population continues to decline despite spending millions making their downtown nice.
Why do citizens have common sens and government doesn’t?
Years ago, while studying a different subject matter “wealth redistribution” was noted concerning extending government involvement in citizens lives. As simple as though two words are, it is the answer,,,although there are many ways and many discussions of saying the same thing it all comes down to those two words. Some just call it theft.
the LAST time that ANY government entity had “common sense” was when Thomas Paine was writing..
One can only IMAGINE what kind of hare-brained ideals this “hand picked” group of local yokels will come up with. Probably form a commission to let a study to see IF we need some consultants to get new light posts downtown…
tari has already told them what he wants to see, a library expansion and a downtown hotel at least thats what 92.9 reported
That’s why he picked people who agree