By: Diane Benjamin
The McLean County Chamber of Commerce is the poster child for insider payoffs. They have their own Political Action Committee to aggressively get the candidates elected they want. The candidates they want elected are the big spenders, therefore the Chamber is the ENEMY of taxpayers.
The 2018 Bloomington Budget shows why they loved Tari Renner:
PDF page 405 – http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=13157
Has the Chamber scolded Bloomington for sending around $80,000 every month to Springfield for legal?
Has the Chamber ever looked at all the Amazon purchases by the City of Bloomington for office supplies etc?
Buy Local?
Evidently the campaign applies to us peons, not government.
Giving the Chamber of Commerce any taxpayer money is a conflict of interest. Taxpayer money is going to an organization actively working against the people paying the bills. Gee, sounds just like the Illinois Municipal League: https://blnnews.com/2016/03/29/the-iml-scam/
If your business is still a member of the Chamber of Commerce, please explain why.
The only way to control government spending is to starve them of revenue. Shop the way they do: On-line and out-of-town.
One more:
This statement is in the documentation for funding BN Advantage: PDF page 191 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15470
You are only allowed to spend your money at businesses who are members of the Chamber of Commerce. (ha ha)
The Chamber doesn’t understand people will fly out of CIRA if the planes go where the people want to go. Peoria has more options.
Connect Transit? I wonder how many of their Board members ride the bus!
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The Chamber is disgusting! It truly is the Chamber of Crony Commerce. The squeaky wheel big-government members run the place, though I’m told membership is fairly balanced politically. There’s a great deal of fear going against the crown. Their PAC just supports the projected winner. I don’t think it’s a strong lobbying and influential group, but the optics are wrong. “Make Your Money Mean More” is a joke. It basically tells people to stop shopping based on one’s personal nexus of quality and price in an open market in favor of transacting business with its dues-paying member businesses.
disband the group from funding , let members fund it and you will see more control on both direction and spending , less waste and more equal goals and promotion that pleases all . people tend to be frivolous with funds handed to them and frugal when it’s out of their pockets .
The Chamber of Commerce here is the tip of the Crony Capitalism Spear that is holding this area back from moving into the 21st Century. It is a pay to play organization and in some ways like a mafia shakedown. If you want to do business here you have to pay them the money to join. If your really want to be part of the in crowd, you are required to go to their worthless luncheons and after hours events to cement your place in their club. Don’t want to join and you are a new business? Don’t expect to get much if any business from members of the Chamber. They will avoid you and do whatever they can to not do business with you. Yes, it is call blackballing and it happens here. Many business join only because they are afraid not to join. The Chamber needs to be run out this town. Its very existence helps keep the Crony Good Old Boy Capitalism alive and well here.