By: Diane Benjamin
The Agenda for Monday’s City Council meeting was posted at 4:39. The Pantagraph could at least pretend they read the agenda and then asked Tim Gleason for comments.
They didn’t. The Pantagraph posted a story at least 20 minutes before the City bother to fill in the public.
Obviously the Pantagraph colluded with City Manager Tim Gleason.
Increasing the gas tax is on the agenda. Gleason found 5 Council members who don’t want to use the reserves for streets. That would set a precedent of using the taxes you already pay for what you expect it to be used for. That can not be allowed! How long until you have to pay if you call the police or fire? Same principle.
FIVE council members want ONLY additional taxes used for essential services.
Congrats Bloomington!
So why doesn’t the Pantagraph ever investigate government? Access! If they actually did the job of media they wouldn’t get it.
From now on, only the taxes raised in 2014, 2015, and 2019 will be used for roads, sidewalks, or whatever else they want to make fit into the constraints of the ordinance. They will be creative.
The Pantagraph is a joke but newspapers in general are worthless and ignored. Some places have Radio and TV (local only) that do investigative reports and this offsets newspapers. Well you can’t say that here. When one of the top stories at 5pm on WEEK is the push for the naming of the state microbe. The state, the people in government and the media should be addressing much more important issues but with the mindless morons in all these categories calling the shots this will never happen. It is going to take the people refusing to shop Bloomington and Normal to put a stop to this. Until then, bend over!!!
Who in the hell is representing the Citizens in Bloomington? We know it’s not the Mayor and clearly not these 5 alderman. It’s shameful! Just shameful. Can someone please explain how this is NOT theft? If a business did this to their customers the government would swoop in, fine them, and shut them down.
Essential services, sounds like Mayors Conference, One Voice, light lunch, Marcos pizza, et al..
We SHOULD start naming potholes after council people of that ward, like the “Johnee Painter pitiful pothole” or the “Buragras bad bump” or the “Sadly Sage Swamp”
“So why doesn’t the Pantagraph ever investigate government? Access! If they actually did the job of media they wouldn’t get it.” Yes it is all about access and the money train that they ride on every day of the week. Look at the money the BCPA spends on advertising in the Pantagraph each month. Over $3000 a month! Most businesses here (there are a couple exceptions) have long ago stopped pouring money into the Pantagraph’s black hole. You know the Pantagraph has to be hurting? Who gets a newspaper anymore? Everyone knows that it is really difficult for legacy media to transition into an online environment. The money online is much less and much harder to get (you have to have your act together). I am hoping I live long enough to see the Pantagraph close for good. I am just glad that we have an alternative news source. BLNNEWS!
I can see the day that corporate for the Pantagraph shut it down. In place will be an attempt to survive by having a “central Illinois Paper”. This would merge what was the Pantagraph, Herald and Review, Journal Star and whatever other little crap papers still exist. They don’t do crap for local stories now so they could cut the overall staff by 50%. Teh they would shut the presses down and try to go on line subscription.
the reason the rag does not investigate local government? If you have read some of Diane’s past articles you would see why: the Rag is well compensated by the Council(taxpayer funded of course)to write what Tari wants them to write and keep their mouth shut about the rest.
The government will continue with incompetence, so they can continue to take more. Who would vote for a tax increase if basic services were in good shape? So they purposely keep visible problems to further abscond with our hard made money. I kind of agree with frazzini – borrow now while rates are reasonable to fix our infrastructure – and stop spending on quality of life! With good roads and water/sewer in good shape the quality of life of the private sector will improve by itself!
Democrats don’t study economics!
Do you know about HO.P.E.
Nope.
Most media types are liberals. All the news reporters at the Pantagraph are not just liberals, but lean very hard left. Local radio, same way. WJBC and WGLT staffers, all liberal. You would see a more aggressive tone if either town had a Mayor or majority of council members that were conservative. Let Trump come up in a conversation and they all go ballistic.
“When it gets down to the brass tacks, it’s all about money.” JFK
Capitalism laced with greed is doomed to fail. Max Weber
Capitalism is making somebody else’s life better by making your own better. Give somebody what they want at a price they can afford everybody benefits. You can call that greed if you want, but their are no victims. If somebody thinks people are being taken advantage of they will start a competing business to eliminate the problem.
I wholeheartedly agree with you. However when people get greedy, it can spoil our system.
The Pantagraph is a fine example of this. We must avoid greed for it can hurt capitalism.
The Pantagraph is bought and paid for by local government. This is by design. Bloomington and Normal governments do not advertise because the Pantagraph is effective at reaching customers, but because they want to buy their loyalty. As well, the Pantagraph has limited resources and budget, so the writers are happy to take shortcuts by simply transcribing what the city sends them. It’s sad.