By:  Diane Benjamin

Part 1   https://blnnews.com/2018/12/26/is-bloomington-a-bank/

Part 2  https://blnnews.com/2018/12/28/part-2-is-bloomington-a-bank/

In Part 2 I showed loans made from the General Fund.  How did that happen?  You pay taxes to the City of Bloomington expecting it to be used for essential services.  I doubt anybody pays taxes so their wealth can be redistributed to those who can’t afford repairs to their homes.

Many of these loans appear to be for water and sewer line repairs since payments for the work done are frequently made to plumbers.  I haven’t seen any cases yet where payment was made to the homeowner, but I haven’t looked at every payment.  Payments to contractors merely appear on Bills and Payroll.  If the Council even looks at what is paid (they didn’t notice Tari paying for his girlfriend’s Japan trip), they would have had no reason to question the payments because they aren’t marked as CDBG or General Fund money.  They are marked CD Rehab loans only.

I traced this loan:

This payment is on the 11/12/2012 Bills and Payroll:    http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=4535

Tony Haney is a plumber –  Drain Doctor.  This house is located on W Wood.

There is nothing listed saying the payment came from the General Fund – yet it did!  The loan is deferred meaning payments are not being made.  The account number it was charged to didn’t even change.  The Council would have had no way of knowing they approved a loan from your taxes!  (So who scammed them?)

Other loans approved on the same Bills and Payroll:

Another loan did come from CDBG funds for $24,465.00 – note there is no difference in how the money paid to Haney and how the other two payments are reflected.

This house is on W Jackson, payments are deferred.

I wonder if all these payments led Bloomington to enter the insurance market? 

By May 1st 2019 residents should be able to opt-in to coverage for sewer and water  lines extending from their house to the street.  The question is:  Can they even afford the additional amount every month?

If they don’t opt-out, the bill will be $1.05 higher for leak protection.  Covering both water and sewer lines is another $11.44 a month.

That is almost $150 per year they might not have.  Will CDBG money fund the insurance for them?

Stay tuned,

there will be a Part 4!