By: Diane Benjamin
http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3118
Just a few bills being paid Monday night:
Last year around 400 employees all got $60 Target gift cards for Christmas: https://blnnews.com/2017/11/29/normal-throws-money-at-employees/
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Proving yet again you don’t really own your property in Normal:
Normal wants to tax you for short-term rental of your house!
Can’t sell because your house is in that expensive range that isn’t selling? Using Airbnb, VRBO or Homeaway to make a little income?
Even though the Town found less than 25 properties listed, they think you should pay the 6% Hotel/Motel tax. Yes, they are trolling websites to find you!
See PDF page 81 at the link above.
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Finally, Normal wants to be your doctor:
The Normal City Manager wants to make purchasing any tobacco product illegal if you are under 21. The proposal includes vape products.
The documentation claims no loss in sales tax revenue for passing the ordinance. See PDF page 87.
Then why pass it? Evidently nobody under 21 is buying now!
Maybe it’s just for the good of the collective.
TWO more reasons to NEVER live in, shop in or move to UPTOWN, Illinois. Maybe they should put a tax on stupidity, teaching leftist thought and “creating” problems that don’t exist-they’d be out of debt in a week or two..
Oh, the People’s Republic of Normal. Nothing left untaxed. Nanny Koos and “his” Council know what’s best for all of us. The tax on short-term rentals is not a money grab, clearly…there are only 25 properties. Koos is trying to get in front of this movement at the behest of the crony hotel operators in Uptown. I suspect inspections, certificates, and other hassles are in the not-too-distant future. After all, the government needs to “protect” us from ourselves. Thought Normal was progressive? Apparently, they don’t know that younger folks prefer AirBnB and other short-term rentals over 1%er hotel owners. Tobacco is an easy political target. This is political grandstanding at its finest. Like the drinking age, college students will find a way around it.
Agreed, BN Deserves Better! Hotels are held to the same ‘inspections, certificates, and other hassles’ as you put it – so why not hold AirBNBs to that same standard and level the playing field as well as make the AirBNBs safer?? Pass the fees on the customer renting the space – thus, the homeowner is out nothing.
Because it isn’t necessary. Those sites control their own people with extensive feedback. If your house is crap, the whole world will know it.
It’s actually clammering about issues that don’t really exist and making it SOUND like they are on top of things, when in fact, the REAL issues are swept under the rug.. Entities like Air B & B and Home Away COULD NOT exist unless the local hotels were so high AND up the rates for special events, and seriously, in a fire situation, I’d rather be in a house then the 5th floor of the UPTOWN hotel!! How about you??
Yup. There is no issue with AirBnBs in Normal. It’s usually the hotel owners calling up their friends in politics, raising a fuss. And why not? Rich and his pals in Town government are addicted to taxes…it’s crack for liberals. They need another hit of other people’s money to fund the central planning of other people’s lives.
If you don’t like it – Do Something About It! Vote in better council members!
There aren’t any running? Then get better candidates! If I can get 4-500 valid petition signatures by the 26th, I’ll run.
Maybe you’re not sure if you want to vote for me? You don’t have to – but you won’t (realistically) have that option if I’m not on the ballot.
20 signatures, or even as few as 5, shouldn’t be that hard to get, between coworkers, neighbors, friends, relatives – and you’re free to tell them the same “You don’t have to vote for him if you sign the petition, but you probably won’t have the choice if you don’t” line, because it’s the truth.
(You will need to get your petitions notarized, but you can probably get that done at the library for free, or a lot of other paperwork-related businesses offer the service for free or a nominal fee.)
[email protected]
The takers find new ways and new areas to extort money from the makers… then spend $25K on Christmas gift cards? The trustees of the people’s money act like drunk Frat Boys in Vegas with a suitcase full of free money. It is positively shameful and the people of Normal should be protesting at City Hall to end this crazy spending of hard earned taxpayer money.
Karl who? Sorry but I don’t live in Normal. Otherwise if a good candidate, I’d get you 150 signatures, easy pea-sy.
On a totally different subject but related to Normal town council actions, I drove by the property for the proposed new fire station at the NE corner of Hershey and Shepard — it’s a swampland! The land at the opposite (SW) corner of the intersection is high and dry. Just who is advising the council on this?
Marty Trunk of Trunk Bay.
Lots to comment on here:
First, I can’t wait to hear Fritzen get on his sanctimonious hobby horse about the tobacco ordinance. He always likes to take the moral high ground which usually results in some heavy handed government action. Like the fines in Normal for marijuana possession that are higher than state minimums. Will this be Jeff’s swan song?
Next, there’s the rent payment for the city of Normal as the lone occupant of 1 Uptown Circle of over $30,000 for the month of November. That’s over $360,000 per year if anyone needs help with the math for a building the town is subsidizing for an out of town developer. Let’s build another to round out the circle.
Then there’s the bill to Reinehart that I assume is for Rivian. Wow! What a deal they got on the tax payers dime.
100% accurate
Don’t worry, Rich and his pals will be taxing the 25 AirBnBs to pay the bills. Haha! GLT is gushing over Rivian’s pickup truck. Wonder if Koos will place an order for 20 on the way out the door. Let’s film a commercial about EV Town while we’re at it. As for 1 Unoccupied Circle, what a joke! Koos and his band of merry men tell us that Uptown is the center of the universe. Like the State Farm building in Downtown Bloomington, I’m sure they get “a lot of calls” expressing interest in the space. Haha! Right.
Next up for Normal: Tax the air you breath so they can pay for that $25,040.00 in gifts for Normal employees! I wonder what would happen if they got zero in gifts for holidays ? Knowing the union they would strike!