By: Diane Benjamin
Illinois increased income taxes again!
The stack of unpaid bills increased!
Since Illinois has “been there-done that”, and the unpaid stack still got bigger, that’s proof government doesn’t exist for anybody but itself.
Monday Bloomington will do the same!
PDF page 281. The City needs $136 Million over the next 20 years to fix the sewers they failed to fund for decades. Since it’s the fault of past Councils, now you have to pay for their transgressions. Decide now what you can live without. You will be forced to cut your spending so government can steal more of your money. Government can’t cut a thing!
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See PDF page 106 for details of the Labor Agreement with Parking Enforcement. Of course they get raises and qualifying lump sum benefits. But, what does this statement mean:
Non union employees will be keeping their gold-plated insurance, so everyone else will too? Or, if the City decides employees should get comparable coverage to the private sector, unions will too? (Is that a silly question?)
Keep reading – the support staff union has a deal too.
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Pictures on PDF page 94: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=14716
New Signage!
Grossinger signed a 5 year naming rights contract.
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See PDF page 278. With a budget of over $200,000,000 a year, Bloomington is financing a long list of items so they can have MORE stuff. They call it capital leases, interest is costing around $424,000 a year. $8,000 mowers are financed for 5 years. Maybe the next City Manager will be able to count. I wonder how many items will even last 5 years?
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Finally,
Citizens get to hear what the financial status of the City was 5 months ago. No, the financial statements from April 30, 2017 still aren’t ready. Last year they were almost a year late. This year? Why provide data for people who might actually use it!
This is a fun fact though: PDF page 312
700,000 + 1,700,000 = $2,400,000
Hum, that’s the exact amount that disappeared in the Coliseum a few years ago! https://blnnews.com/2015/12/13/2400000-disappears-at-coliseum/
Page 318!
Recaps tax receipts. Very interesting stuff. Of course, it is from April. We don’t get to see how it’s going now.
PDF page 339. I hope the Securities and Exchange Commission doesn’t see the Coliseum numbers. Those revenue number aren’t close to the projections for selling the bonds to build it!
One can only hope that the phrasing in the new contracts means the City may seriously consider bringing the health insurance coverage inline with the private sector. A request for clarity would certainly be appropriate.
The FY2018 budget includes “borrowing” $2.2M from the Employee Health Account to be used for capital maintenance/improvements at the Coliseum/Arena. That “loan” was necessary to “balance” the FY2018 budget so Renner could claim, pre-election, a “balanced budget” without tax increases. There already is a “structural deficit” reported as of the end of the second quarter of FY2018 going into FY2019. There are 6 months to increase that deficit.
We have several great sign companies in Bloomington/Normal. Why ship the money south.
If they are going to tax and spend us to death at least redistribute the money locally.
And the waiver of the bidding process really annoys me too.
Buy local is for peons!