By: Diane Benjamin
At Tuesday’s Normal Town Council meeting Kathleen Lorenz asked why the Intergovernmental Agreement with Connect Transit says both Bloomington and Normal are required to review the CT budget yearly. They never do, but it is in the agreement.
Kathleen: Maybe because CT loses $1 MILLION a month and local taxes were raised to flush more money. Now CT wants even more so they can qualify for more state funds. Maybe because the citizens see the huge empty buses and wonder why anyone would support them.
Is Kathleen trying to get people used to the idea of having no CT oversight? Maybe she is tired of being blamed for funding CT and prefers Connect Transit adds to the already way-to-many separate taxing bodies in Illinois. Want to see yet another line on your property tax bill for a service you never use?
Many bus systems are their own taxing authority. I’m sure Connect Transit would love to level taxes on Bloomington-Normal and have no oversight by either Council. Of course Bloomington and Normal won’t be dropping their sales tax rate if they no longer have to fork money over to Connect. Neither can give up money when Normal needs an underpass and Bloomington thinks downtown will someday be the City Center (if they spend enough money).
See Lorenz at 3:04:30, then ask her why she doesn’t want to be accountable to the people she is stealing money from for Connect Transit.
These Town/City Council members are Absolutely NUTS! No other way to describe them! Ron
Kathleen had no spine to hold CT accountable for pissing away tax dollars.
Either that or throwing away $1,000,000 a month isn’t a problem.
This woman gets dumber with each passing Council meeting.
Please take it easy on Kathleen. This is not her fault. She is doing exactly what Pam and Koos tell her to do. If there is blame, it goes to the puppet masters. KL has proven she is void of thought and a loyal rubber stamper. She is one of Koo’s most valuable assets.
Kathleen continues to help the local elitists cover up the failures of their government central planning. There are too many people and businesses in power that would stand to lose money and/or suffer a bruised ego if the CT gravy train were to end. Since its own ridership despises CT, it’s no longer the 3rd rail of local politics and thus open to valid criticism, as any spending of taxpayer money ought to be. The local leadership wants citizens to take their word for it on CT (despite its demonstrable history of failure) and simply cut them a subsidy check each month without asking any questions or demanding accountability. What could go wrong?
There’s blame AND stupidity enough to go ALL AROUND! What kind of Fiscally responsible folks would run ANY kind of business OF THEIR OWN, if it lost $1 million a month? NONE!!! If this was a stock Warren Buffet would drop it quicker then a smoking skillet.. This IS NOT good management or even good leadership! Like the signs read,
Normal NEEDS better priorities!! And Bloomington too..