By: Diane Benjamin
This won’t be the last story, stay tuned.
BNWRD is the Bloomington Normal Water Reclamation District. Whatever you flush they process. Homes connected to the sanitary sewer system should be charged on the water bill AND on the property tax bill. This is the same principle as Bloomington billing you for water and taxing your property.
See previous stories:
https://blnnews.com/2020/01/16/what-stan-warned-about-happened/
https://blnnews.com/2020/01/20/this-owner-got-a-bnwrd-bill-after-20-years/
Since BNWRD doesn’t have a website I had to FOIA everything. This is the Total Compensation Report: Total Compensation 2019
Every employee got a $50 gift certificate for Christmas, the Trustees just voted as they probably have every year, the same thing happened in 2018:
If some Public Purpose is met by handing out presents, why only $50? Illinois Constitution – Article VIII:
BNWRD has no problem increasing taxes:
2 years ago:
Last year:
With so many taxing bodies and all of them increasing taxes by a couple percent a year, it’s not surprising taxes rise faster than income.
The District held a Public Hearing on the current budget:
At every meeting “There is no response”. The public doesn’t attend meetings because they have no idea where or when the meetings are! Do you think they don’t have a website for a reason?
Different subject:
BNWRD owns other farm land too. I asked for details on the Randolph Farm and received this response:
Taking these two properties off the tax rolls means around $2700 in property taxes is no longer being paid on the first property. The second PIN number has no data available in the County database. They were both taxable because BNWRD was renting the ground for farming.
Another topic:
If you follow government you have probably seen most have used the Illinois buying program to get better prices on vehicles. Bloomington recently requested bids on a vehicle in the open market. The BNWRD meeting minutes say why:
I don’t know why the program that actually saved money is on hold, is the FBI investigating there too?
Finally, the good news:
BNWRD is heavily regulated by the EPA and the IEPA. Of course neither one looks at spending, but BNWRD has been recognized with awards for the work they do. This is from the minutes of a 2019 meeting:
The minutes I received for 2018 and 2019 are in two large PDF files. I will eventually post both, more to come soon.
Lots of salary aand pension payments. I think the gift card is a little overboard.
$30,000 annnual employer provided health insurance…?
I wonder if they are paying taxes on this health insurance windfall. Unit 5 used to provide all it’s executive team with 100% employer provided health care and did not collect income taxes against it. I suspect since it’s not reported on the compensation report, then they are not paying taxes on the non-wage benefit as required by law.
I’d also be curious to know when their last discrimination testing was completed on their health plan. Big no no if BNWRD CEO gets a gold plated $30,000 health insurance policy handed to him at taxpayer/fee payer expense every year and other classes do not.
not posting meetings? BNWRD is breaking the law but we all know they care about that as much as King Tari and his jesters does. Raising taxes without public opinion is TAXATION WITH REPRESENTATION , which also happens to be against the law
Since they don’t have a website they aren’t required to post meetings except on the door of the room where the meeting is held.