By: Diane Benjamin
http://normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/17188/CAFR20-FINAL-DOC
From Normal’s just issued financial statements as of 3/31/2020:
Note the Long-Term total debt – $224,909,947. It increased more than $25 million in 1 year.
What makes up that debt?
$84,320,000 is bond debt, the IEPA loan doesn’t have interest expense. PDF page 31
Below is a chart showing the biggest drivers of debt:
What is OPEB?
Other Post Employment Benefits. The Town pays expenses when incurred.
Now think how many non-students live in Normal. The total population in 2017 was 54,284. An estimated 20,000 are students. How much of the debt do they pay?
The above is why property taxes are continually increased. Defined benefit pensions are un-affordable, the percent funded crashed earlier this year. The bonded debt, mostly for Uptown, just exacerbates the liabilities.
The wrong Constitutional Amendment is on the November ballot. Pensions need reformed now.
Vote NO – there is nothing in the proposed amendment that states EVERYONE won’t be paying more.
Progressives can never tax enough!
Just think you can put a city over $100 million in debt and you get a plaza named after you ie. Mark Peterson Plaza etched into the stone wall outside the train station. If koos or resse hurry maybe they can get a tunnel named after them.
A tunnel named after Koos or Reese would be appropriate. Walk into the dark, where, until you get to the end there is no escape.
True, then it really could be called the “Bat Cave” as well. Both are Bat===shizz crazy.
Koos already has a monument… the vacant space at 1 Uptown Circle. It’s an empty promise, hollow, continuously costs taxpayers money, and remains utterly irrational. A perfect fit.
A hundred million here, a hundred million there…soon or later we’re talking about real money.
Just think, there are entire states running on a SURPLUS! Why can’t Normal, Bloomington ? Could it be mismanagement by their leaders? If the answer is yes I suggest it’s time for new management
So instead of telling people that Normal is $100,000,000.00 in debt, I will now say $225,000,000.00 in debt. And that Normal used to be debt free, before Koos.
Pension debt was probably there before, it just gets worse every year