By: Diane Benjamin
The Bloomington City Council is holding a Committee of the Whole Monday night. Before Tari, the Council didn’t have 4 Council meetings a month and an additional meeting in between. Think the endless hours of meetings have something to do with the spending being out of control – of course it does! The more they meet the more things they think of to spend money on.
Monday night its downtown AGAIN.
But first they have to approve the minutes of their last off-schedule meeting nobody saw. Nobody saw it because it was held at the Police Station where it wasn’t live streamed. This was their annual meeting with legislators.
The City had to complain about the State keeping a cut of Sales Tax – they deprive Bloomington of around $450,000 a year.
Then the conversation turned to on-line purchases. If the business has a location in Illinois, purchases are charged the State rate of 6.25%. Then the minutes reflect this: PDF page 13 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=16394
Anybody see a problem?
Should I give you more time?
I saw nothing in the minutes were this error was corrected by anyone present. The Council evidently thinks they lose their 1% Sales Tax if you buy things on-line, even if the State does get its 6.25%.
Since facts matter, and they don’t know any:
See this page on the City website: http://www.cityblm.org/government/departments/finance/local-tax-information/sales-tax
For every purchase you make on-line the City loses 2.5% – not 1%.
Or, for every purchase you make on-line, you save 2.5%!
Since they can’t control spending, why not starve the beast to save 2.5%?
Does your mayor and Council really not know the ridiculous percent they steal?
Evidently the answer is yes.
These same people think they are capable of managing a budget of over $200,000,000.
I think the problem has been identified. I wonder how much Sales Tax Alderman Mathy is charging at his business?
One more note from the minutes:
PDF page 19
Legalization sounds like a winner!
Starve. The. Beast. Love it! Most Bloomington-Normal residents wouldn’t have to work very hard to shift 50% of their purchases out-of-town, and preferably out of McLean County. As Conservatives, we should make every effort to do this and be extremely outspoken and clear about doing so. It’s not like the Chamber of Commerce are our friends, anymore.
The lights are on and only the math challenged are home.
Have already done so, only think I buy in Blono is groceries which are taxed at 1%, Have drastically cut back on eating at local restaurants Food & Beverage Tax in Blono is also out of control! Starve the Beast!
Bravo! Good for you!!
You can’t fix stupid. 100% of local sales are not purchased on line. No, Mr Mayor, the City is not losing $7M of sales tax to online purchases.
🐥
Even if I wanted to shop local, the few stores remaining usually don’t have what I want, so end up buying online. Sad.
Online OR in another town! I USED to buy my garden items HERE! Several hundred dollars a year worth, but now get them in a town that has a 6.75% rate rather then the HIGH taxes here! And the restaurant tax here is just OUT OF CONTROL! When you’re dealing with mathematically challenged people, you HAVE to remember they are NOT going to get the FACTS right, IF math is involved… Maybe that’s WHY Tari just gives a $100 tip on a $400 bill. It’s easy to figure!
Puppets. They are puppets on strings. The question is who is pulling the strings? I detest a majority of Council. But other than Hauman, they appear to be somewhat intelligent individuals. Amelia knows exactly what’s going on and she likes it. Black thinks Tari is God so he just follows along. I’m guessing the rest either do not actually care or represent their wards. Poor people are forced to shop Bloomington/Normal. I hope they wake up and start firing people soon.
what a joke .. instead of crying over spilled milk , they need to watch how they spend what they do get .. it’s like a kid with a credit card who thinks there’s no real balance due ,
Do the residents of Bloomington spend $700,000,000 online in purchases a year? For the city to lose 7 million from their one percent cut that is quite some shopping.
Considering local tax is 2.5%, not 1%, the math is beyond fuzzy.
“Fuzzy Math” is what UPTOWN used to build the Mariott. Bloomington used the SAME formula for the MARKARENA. It appears that State Farm (other then banks and accountants) is the ONLY place in this town that takes math SERIOUSLY! and then it’s a CRISIS!