By: Diane Benjamin
Realtors got heavily involved in last April’s Election. You probably noticed lots of campaign mail had their name on it – from Springfield.
In addition they gave Koos:
McCarthy:
Cummings:
Preston:
Look up all contributions here: https://illinoissunshine.org/
FYI: Bob Broad, Planning Commission head and Julie Hile partner plus advocate for zoning changes to One Normal Plaza, donated to Koos and McCarthy.
Realtors have a vested interest in protecting property rights. Monday night we will find out if they wasted their money.
The professional staff wants to give away a road to Rivian. See PDF page 176: https://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/4039
Besides the fact that road belongs to taxpayers since they paid for it and Rivian is a multi-billion dollar company, see anything strange?
“dead ends to the east at a property not owned by Rivian”
The documentation claims the owners of that property don’t use Electric Avenue. Is that because they aren’t allowed? The documentation does say there is a security fence blocking access. It also claims a railroad track blocks access.
The property that will loose access is currently zoned industrial but it is being farmed now. In the future what happens if somebody wants to used it for an industrial purpose? It will obviously be worth less since it will only have access from one side.
Instead of Rivian negotiating with that property owner, Is Normal taking away property rights without compensation? The owners have a legal right to use that road whether they are or not.
So, the Town wants to give away 2.033 acres and they claims this:
Realtors: Think the Town of Normal cares about property rights? Your chosen folks are supposedly running the place!
Property rights will value as much in Uptown 2.0 as they did in the original. Remember eminent domain?
Check out the rest of the agenda, more fun I’m not writing about in advance!
IMO Julie Hile has had her head in the friends only slop bucket/gravy train long enough. #MunicipalGriftIsArt
We already gave Rivian a bunch of incentives. Normal keeps giving them more for nothing new in return. Don’t they care that the residents have to pay for everything they give away?
Evident NO
In exchange for Rivian coming to Normal, they demanded the Town give them pretty much anything they wanted so Normal has. I assume it would be rather enlightening to read the state and local government agreements and giveaways that Rivian was able to extort. It was particularly important to Koos and his band of supporters to land Rivian for not only their egos but to do their part for Agenda 21 (or whatever it is now called). IMHO opinion, everything you read about Scaringe and his history pretty much paints him as someone leery of trust. To his credit, he has been able to use other people’s money to get this far so far. That said, Bezos is lying in the weeds to take over the entire operation sooner than later by making R.J. a very rich man within a few years through a buyout of some sort. It is then that Normal will be disposed of in favor of some international arrangement and more abandoned industrial and building sites will be taken over by rust and weeds in good ole BN with the taxpayers holding an empty bag.
Anyone who disagrees with the never ending giveaways will be used as the scapegoat for when Rivian leaves or has problems.
Of course they go their money’s worth – They got their money up front! Millions of dollars of questionable incentives, purchases, sales, & leases over the years. (I’ve been told ‘over the decades’ is more accurate!)
Spending tens of thousands to keep that taxpayer-funded gravy train in place is a no-brainer. Even if they see nothing more for their investment, they already got at least a 10x return on their money.
In my online concession posting last April, I congratulated the winners of the election. I wasn’t referring to the actual candidates.