By: Diane Benjamin
The Town of Normal must be feeling heat. Maybe it’s because Chris Koos came REALLY close to getting knocked off by Marc Tiritilli. Maybe it’s because Normal raised property taxes eleven years in a row. Maybe it’s because the only way a building was going to get built across from City Hall was the Town renting an entire floor at outrageous rates and then spending $420,853.49 for new furniture. Maybe it’s the 4.8 million for 10 years of rebates to a shopping center developer. Does anybody believe they would have let their investment rot to nothing without Normal’s help?
It seems like everybody in Normal gets a rebate except the people paying for the rebates Normal’s friends get!
(See some details https://blnnews.com/2017/11/07/here-is-just-one-reason-normal-raises-taxes/)
The Town decided to fight back with a spin page: http://www.normal.org/1378/Rumor-vs-Fact
Government never publicly admits they have a credibility problem until they have no choice. Normal has a HUGE credibility problem!
Here’s their first Rumor vrs Fact:
The property taxes are a small piece of the puzzle, even though the Council can’t stop themselves from constantly raising them. How about comparing all the other taxes and fees? Koos and company have fleeced the residents with sales taxes, water rates, sewer rates, storm water rates, and garbage fees. Add the 30 MPH speed limits on roads like College Ave and Normal has caged the population to make them easier to pick-pocket!
(2012 recap of the increases: https://blnnews.com/2012/05/30/normal-il-what-is-up-with-the-debt/)
Rumor vrs Fact #2:
You can stop laughing now!
Portillo’s didn’t pick the site in Normal. Koos’s good buddy developer led them there because Koos wanted the hotel gone. A cut-rate hotel not only didn’t fit the elitists master plan, but it competed with the Town’s preferred providers in Uptown. Revenue could have been derived from both the hotel and Portillo’s, but that’s immaterial since the first $1.8 million is going back to Koos’s buddy Tartan. Once again everybody else pays more to fund kickbacks for friends.
I’m sure the horror of Portillo’s finding their own location (like Champaign) in BLOOMINGTON instead of Normal played a role too.
There is one more statement about crime in Normal.
They must be taking a lot of heat from all sides, I’ve never heard anybody say Normal isn’t as safe as it used to be. I’d stay out of Uptown at night though, its way too dark! Lighting interferes with saving the environment.
Keep posting Normal!
I can’t wait for the next edition.
Expect Chris Koos to quit after the 2018 elections. The Normal Town Council proves why term limits are needed.
.
.
.
Rumor: Uptown Normal is a success. Fact: Uptown Normal is an aesthetic success and a financial failure. Rumor: Koos is well-liked in Normal. Fact: Koos is well-liked in UPTOWN Normal, and has forgotten about the rest of our town.
What a contradiction of terms. a SUCCESSFUL hotel, and yet a hot dawg stand will bring in TEN TIMES more money??? WHO does this grey haired commie think he’s talking to? That hotel HAD a construction company bidding to put a chain link fence around the perimeter, WHAT kind of profitable hotel does that? And as for Portabellas, let’s ALL go there for a New Years eve party, as it’s gonna be a COLD time in the ole UPTOWN then!
Uptown with all their “hidden fees” IS one of the most expensive villages in the state to reside in-and you don’t even have to live there to enjoy those taxes/fees, just be IN their taxing arm! Wonder IF coos has used Zagster yet?
Happy New Year, and thanks for the laughs UPTOWN, even if they were at OUR EXPENSE!
They are clearly feeling the heat!
Agreed. Koos overplayed his hand with Portillos and was called out. Now with the State Farm downturn, people are looking at their taxes bills and fees more closely. When the good time were rolling people shrugged at taxes and spending. “No biggie,” they said. Now that State Farm is letting people go and the population is declining, people are questioning the policies of tax and spend. Koos and his ilk are on the run politically.
,,,and they’ll run away from it and blame the next set of ilk.