By: Diane Benjamin
Since Chris Koos, Kevin McCarthy, Scott Preston, and Chemberly Cummings want your vote April 6th, does this look like something they would do to get it?
The Normal Council held a 9 hour budget session yesterday. Surprise! They aren’t going to raise property taxes this year. Instead they are rearranging money they already have to fund the ever increasing pension expense. (Funny, rearranging means setting better priorities and that’s what other candidates are demanding and promising)
So you get a one year reprieve. Does this chart look like it’s going to last?
Say it with me:
NO
Of course there is much more to report from these festivities. Stay tuned. This slide is at 26:40.
The council nitwits believe raising taxes is making money and they pat themselves on the back for increasing revenues. They have no concept of the reality that they are guilty of causing taxes to increase which is causing the mass exodus from Illinois.
These are the people we voted for. We have done this to ourselves. My recommendation is to vote for anyone who is not an incumbent. If you research the plethora of candidates if they have ties to Koos or want to continue the “progress” Koos has started to stay away from them too.
The problem seems to be a lack of conservative candidates, good or bad. Conservatives are generally too busy being productive law abiding citizens, and have no interest in playing in the swamp of local government. Who can reall blame them? Meanwhile the socialists continue their onslaught at every level of government.
Normal has plenty running in April
Normal is doing quite well, if we can just get people to get out and vote!
The most important race is Marc Tiritilli for Mayor.
http://www.facebook.com/MarcTforMayor / https://marcformayor.com/
Looks like there are four good candidates for Normal Town Council. Other than my obvious first choice, I haven’t decided yet which other two I’m voting for:
Karl Sila – fb.me/WriteInKarlSila / VoteForKarl.org
David Paul Blumenshine – http://www.facebook.com/DavidPaulBlumenshine
Steve Harsh – http://www.facebook.com/Steve-Harsh-for-Normal-Council-101404778509545
Donna Toney -www.facebook.com/Citizens-for-Donna-Toney-101147438560478
And if you want Bloomington to get better, you should donate to one or more of the above candidates, and encourage all your Normal friends to vote for them – if the good people of Bloomington see that the good people of Normal can take back their local government, you’ll see more Bloomington people willing to step forward.
Didn’t the Normal Town Council vote to not raise property taxes last year then turn around a few weeks later to vote for an increase? People are gullible and have such short memories.
Do Tell,
You are correct. Normal routinely communicates to the public and council one thing, then does another.
– Property Tax change
– Mayor’s emergency powers
– Restaurant closure enforcement
– Banning of political protests
– Collaborating w/ Bloomington then spending $5M to poach existing water customers from Bloomington
– Wanting citizen input, then suppressing citizen inclusion in the Citizen Summit
– The list goes on…
Stan Nord – Normal Town Council Citizen Representative w/ a different belief of what it means to be transparent, honest, and inclusive than the definition used inside Town Hall.
Besides this being an election year, perhaps one reason for the increased emphasis of funding pensions is the fact that both the police and fire pension funds have fallen below 50% funding. Financial experts agree that once this happens it is difficult, if not impossible for them to ever recover. This problem was created by years of neglect and irresponsibility by the mayor and Council who blindly followed city staff recommendations that all this would be solved by incremental increases to the property tax levy. As one can readily see, that plan didn’t work. After years of property tax increases in Normal, our pensions are still a black hole.
Normal must get serious about this. I fear that we may have reached the point of no recovery. Council members, especially the mayor are also going to have to get serious about lobbying the state for needed pension reforms; most notably converting these funds to a 401 K style defined contribution plan. That will require an amendment to the state constitution and holding state legislators accountable.
In the years that I’ve been researching this problem I’m greatly alarmed by the lack of understanding or concern that I see from our public officials with respect to all of this. Most are just content to shrug their shoulders and see it as all things Illinois. But, we are facing a day of reckoning that will be the final nail in the coffin of Illinois.
We have excellent candidates to vote for on April 9th. Marc Tiritilli, David Paul Blumenshine, Karl Sila, and Steve Harsh. Mark your calendars. Get your conservative family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers to vote too. (Beware of poser candidates who are trying to confuse you. These 4 guys are the real deal.)
April 6th