By: Diane Benjamin
The Town of Normal used to have their tax history on their website, they no longer do. Luckily I copied it back in 2012: https://blnnews.com/2012/05/30/normal-il-what-is-up-with-the-debt/
Rates were raised last Monday: http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2689
To translate their Greek:
April 1, 2017 – $1.27 per 1,000 gal, plus $2.50 per month
August 7, 2017 – $2.02 per 1,000 gal, plus $3.00 per month
But they aren’t done:
April 1, 2018 – $2.23 per 1,000 gal, plus $3.25 per month
April 1, 2019 – $2.44 per 1,000 gal, plus $3.50 per month
April 1, 2020 – $2.65 per 1,000 gal, plus $3.75 per month
April 1, 2021 – $2.86 per 1,000 gal, plus $4.00 per month
April 1, 2022 – $3.07 per 1,000 gal, plus $4.25 per month
If you use 6000 gallons now, you pay 7.62 + 2.50 = $10.12 ($121.44 a year)
By 2022 you will pay $22.67 ($272.04 a year)
5 years ago you only paid $9.64 (115.68 a year)
Sewer dollars are in a separate fund so they CAN charge you more. Essential services taxpayers expect government to do are immaterial to the Town of Normal unless you pay more – the fund doesn’t have enough money. By segregating funds, it allows the Town to spend other money frivolously:
- Millions on underpass/overpass studies and planning
- New library
- Renting expensive office space just to get the building on the circle
- Expensive furniture for the new space
- Rebate taxes and grounds maintenance for Rivian
- Rebate taxes for Portillos
This list could go on and on.
The residents of Normal deserve every tax increase the Council wants to hand out because only two guys showed up at the meeting Monday to even discuss the increases. The two attend and speak at most meetings while all other residents think they are powerless.
Your government doesn’t FEAR you. Chris Koos did temporarily when he was almost defeated – he got over it. Just on this one report (linked above) Koos was reimbursed for:
That’s $6,561.07 for 3 trips. Koos must have used up his budget for the year since the Japan trip was paid out of another account not associated with the Mayor or Council.
What benefits did you receive from any of them? In Washington DC he begged for Federal Tax dollars – pretending those taxes don’t come from you.
The citizens in Normal have chosen to live under tyranny. Quit complaining on Facebook, the Council doesn’t care about your social media babble.
The Council doesn’t want to see angry citizens in person. That’s why their public comment policy still restricts your rights and violates the law: http://www.normal.org/854/Addressing-the-Council
Have you noticed the happy Council smiles every time they vote to steal more from you?
The email below was written to the Bloomington Alderman who wanted Modified Wards so guys like him didn’t need to represent individuals. Elections are At-Large in Normal so their Council doesn’t need to either. See this story for the background: https://blnnews.com/2013/11/13/city-manager-mark-peterson-liables-me/
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This shows exactly how the Town feels about you!
Yes, fiscal responsibility is an extreme agenda since nobody in Illinois believes in it. The next City Manager will think just like Peterson because the Council agrees with him. Congrats.
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Hey, at least they have a Route 66 souvenir shop now!
Last I heard it isn’t open yet. Maybe a couple more years.
The Grand Opening is this weekend. I think it’s the 12th. Koos will be there. Let’s all show up and ask him about the exorbitant taxes, fee increases, irresponsible spending, tax giveaways, etc.
At taxpayer expense!
This Peterson memo is so telling. I had no idea he’d written that. Absolutely reflects his/Koos/Council’s opinion of those who hold them to account or question them.
As for Rt66 museum, if you go by there, no new work is done on the inside. The crap’s just picked up. There’s new landscaping that went in this week.. Still a ton to be done. Not sure why she’s opening right now.
Dan Craft has a gushy article about it in the Pgraph today (I don’t subscribe any longer, but it’s on their website). He’s the entertainment writer. So the Pgraph sees this as a good-time rock & roll story…….not a story the community deserves answers to.
The article confirms the building is called “Ryburn Place.” She even has a website named “RyburnPlace.com.” Aside from taxpayers having to pay for this lady’s mortgage/remodel mistake, the fact that it’s named after her is the part that burns me the most.
If you read the associated story – when he wrote that email I’d never talked to Peterson or met him that I could remember. Fazzini sent it to his supporters claiming “he knows her well”. Modified Wards got defeated!
Yes, I too noted that the Peterson drivel included all of the progressive buzzwords and programmed phrases – having spent many decades in their midst before waking up and becoming truly aware of reality I am particularly put off when I hear them/see them – I even read those sorts of things in their voices- and yes they also have distinctive speech patterns and inflections with emphasis on the same words – ALL of them do. It’s a little eerie really.
Diane you’ve nailed it.
The reason Normal has pulled all this crap off is the lack of a ward system. If all of these guys are representing you then none of them are. There’s absolutely no accountability and as your memo from Peterson to Fazzini shows, they like it that way.
Terry Ryburn is not the first person or property they’ve bailed out. Here are a few more:
-The former ISU President’s home on main street
-The Immanuel Bible Foundation
-The Normal Theater
-Give me time I’ll think of more. Properties they’ve purchased and resold at a loss come to mind…….
Keep in mind these properties come with ongoing maintenance expense that piles up as the years roll on. Terry will need more money and she’ll get it.
No wonder they have no money for upgrades to the sewer and water systems. They want you to believe this is a consumer fee, you use it, you pay for it. The reality is it’s one of the essential services of local government and they have no money to pay for the needed upgrades because of all they waste money away on. But, we’ve got plenty for Koos and company to go to Japan and Scott Preston to go to one conference after another to order room service on the city dime. Where is the outrage?
By the way, not only can we go to Terry Rayburn’s open house this weekend, but Portillos is finally going to open up. Thank you Normal Town Council and Mark Peterson.
The house on Linden they bought for WAY over the assessed value and then tore it down to add to the park.
I don’t know how it is done in Normal but in Bloomington monies can be and are transferred between those separate (“enterprise”) funds. In Bloomington, the Coliseum is an enterprise fund and money has been transferred from the other enterprise funds to subsidize it. The City administration gets very upset when General Funds have to be used for the services that only government can provide.
In the Pravdagraph’s real estate section last week, the Town of Normal shelled out $900,000 for a property at 404 W. Locust to Old Second National Bank of Aurora. Another sweetheart deal that no one was supposed to notice?
Is that part of the land swap with ISU? It’s very convoluted
Yes.
NEW toilets for the UPKOOS hotel so they can FLUSH their economy-which is WHERE it’s going!
They should supply those disposable flush wipes. I hear the do a pretty good job of jamming up the system and filters. So flush away!
The only way to stop this is to flood the councils with people who are sick and tired of the slush fund! Both Bloomington and Normal residents must start speaking out in the COUNCIL CHAMBERS not on FB! The more people who show up to meetings to protest the Kings policies and spending the better!