By: Diane Benjamin
Bills and Payroll: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=18588
Expenses that can be avoided by eliminating the Bloomington Election Commission:
Renner feeding himself in MARCH:
Remember when America was a melting pot? People didn’t come here to be different, they came to be Americans. Those days are long gone in favor of “diversity”:
Even Americans don’t want to be Americans anymore: https://bn-mclp.org/
There isn’t strength in diversity. Diversity means to divide, free speech is shut down so nobody is offended. Why do so many non-profits only exist because they get tax dollars? All you need to know is the YWCA is involved.
I counted 11 grants this pay period. Click the link and search the word “grant” if you want to see them.
Bloomington is back to holding two council meetings on Monday.
This is the agenda for the 5:30 meeting: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=18594
What land are they buying now? Front and Center? It’s a SECRET meeting, so we don’t know.
The 7:00 meeting might not last long, the first controversial item is the ZBA telling a homeowner his screened in porch can’t be built because it would be 24 feet from the property line instead of 30: PDF page 43 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=18600
None of his neighbors objected at the ZBA hearing. The Council can overturn that decision or affirm it. Since property rights don’t exist, I’m guessing affirm.
It wouldn’t be a Bloomington Council meeting without wanting to spend money downtown, See PDF page 46. The City wants dibs on $250,000 spent on sidewalk and street resurfacing if and when the Downtown Southwest TIF makes money. More bike lanes on Front!
I keep hearing about some plan for the empty Front and Center building, Commerce Bank, and the Elks. If the plan is a bus transfer station the City won’t generate any TIF money because government doesn’t pay property taxes. They keep dreaming of a catalyst project. Building something doesn’t mean anybody is going to come, bus riders wouldn’t be riding the bus if they were flushed with cash. The Coliseum and BPCA have already failed, but they just keep trying. Maybe the government will eventually own the entire area.
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The massive reconstruction of the intersections on Front Street at Main and Front Street at Center is a result of Public Works finding a corroded conduit for the street crossing lights. The cost of repair of the corroded conduit was estimated to cost $20K–$30K. Now the project cost has increased TENFOLD to the amount of $250K for only a small portion of street repair/resurfacing. The project will still include hand operated flashing crossing signals at Main Street. Adding medians with vegetation provided from the Parks & Rec budget will reduce traffic lanes at the intersects to one in each direction on Front Street. I guess pedestrians are no longer capable of crossing more than one lane of traffic at a time. The addition of decorative crosswalks is to direct pedestrians to specific locations for crossing the street. News flash: Pedestrians will cross the street closest to where they stand, even if jaywalking. There are no markings apparent for bicycle lanes.
This is a perfect example of why the City continues to experience structural deficits. The $250K for this small area of Downtown will be taken from the $4M generated from LMFT & Home Rule sales tax allocated for Street Resurfacing. Keep in mind, Jefferson Street between East and Madison is scheduled for resurfacing/reconstruction. Keep in mind that the current fiscal year Street Resurfacing budget of $4M is only 50% of the needed $8M/year to bring the city streets to the level of “fair.” Keep in mind, TIF Districts last for 23 years. The TIF District has yet to generate any revenue after TWO years. Revenue generated by TIF can and will be used as incentives for investors prior to reimbursement to the Street fund. The Street fund will only be reimbursed if there is an institutional collective memory. Good luck with that. During the FY 2019 budget discussions, a recommendation was made by Staff to increase LMFT. Watch for that to happen after the elections.
Let me see if I understand. You’re against beautifying Front Street and making it safe for pedestrians and people on bikes. Got it. I’m all for protecting the most vulnerable users of the road. And I hope they improve that pit of a Connect Transit transfer station along Front.
Connect doesn’t have enough rider to justify it. How many people have been hit by cars on Front? How many bikers use it? Your philosophy that government solves problems is the problem. They don’t. They steal money from citizens and buy favors for friends. The bike paths aren’t because residents were crying for them. Maybe you should sit on E Washington and count the bikers. Bring a book. You will be bored waiting for some.
I was amazed when the slantograph had a story about Springfield saving 1,5 million by controlling pension spiking. Then the TV snooze had a story about the Peoria city manager trying to CUT $600,000 from the budget thru 4 layoffs and a couple other changes. THERE tax’in Tari and company there are ways to save the taxpayer money. Maybe instead of wearing a rainbow sash in Boston? (East coast) at a mutual admiration society meeting you might want to take some tips from people trying to help the taxpayer.
Instead you prefer to do to the taxpayer what a helically inclined metal object on a cylinder does to wood (screw).
The mayor of Springfield, a woman, had the balls to challenge IMRF pension spiking through the court system and won. Bloomington was too scared to follow Springfield’s lead. I’m still waiting for the Council to act on the issue.
Maybe the next council will care about taxpayers.
Only if all open seats are replaced with fiscally responsible individuals.
Government may not own that entire area, but they do “own” the business owners in that area or vise versa. Whole lot of favors to go around…but I guess they couldn’t afford State Farm…a business that actually held living wage jobs. I did hear at an All Staff Meeting at Mid Central Community Action they are interested in affordable housing attached to land trusts. Who wants to lay odds those land trusts will be in the favored Down Town District…Bloomington City Council sure does like to vote in favor of screwing the working poor, Mid Central Community Action is selling their soul to play ball.
Affordable housing is “planned” for the land adjacent to the old Bloomington HS. The City purchased that land.
Enslave people to public housing instead of getting out of the way of private enterprise. All the tax increases have made housing unaffordable.
They’re not buying any land. They’re discussing a land purchase. Discussing a land purchase in public could drive the price up. I don’t follow this stuff that closely and know how executive sessions work. The land won’t be purchased until a public session, public discussion, and public vote.
Duh. They have no money so they shouldn’t be buying anything. They already own a lot of land doing nothing. Waiting for the right fit is taking a long time.
Those of us that own businesses who by default are the “wrong fit” have already left and are prospering in cities and towns whose governments don’t try to micromanage and centrally plan the economy. The “right fit” is whatever the market will support. Tari, his supporters, and establishment hacks from years back will continue to be wrong because they think the market is what government wants it to be. Want proof they’re wrong: coliseum/arena, BCPA, Downtown Bloomington, Connect Transit, and Green Top Grocery. Should we add the soccer complex?
Public discussions will be filled with pay-to-play regulars and city employees with Tari’s agenda and support in hand as has been the course for quite sometime. Public vote won’t happen. Underneath which liberal rock do you troll from?
They should be meeting to discuss selling land, not buying it. The local government shouldn’t be in the development business period. How many buildings/properties is Tari going to buy without a plan or consensus from the Council and/or citizenry??? The seller will probably be a campaign supporter or doner, but of course, that’ll just be a coincidence.