By: Diane Benjamin
Normal’s fiscal year runs from April to the following March. The below shows why Normal plans to finally fix some infrasture next year. Reserves (Ending Fund balance) are HIGH! The data portal only has 2 years of data, comparison to pre-covid would have been handy. By April 2021 I think most businesses would have reopened unless they closed permanently.
You can access the data below with this link. The Accounting Period needs changed to 8. November is period 8, I chose that month since tax receipts lag behind the month earned.
Both Bloomington and Normal have high reserves, neither have plans to cut your taxes however. Change Normal’s Accounting Period to 9 and 10, the General Fund balance explodes.
The first chart is last fiscal year through November, the second chart is this fiscal year through November. The General Fund collects all of the taxes not listed below the GF: Sales tax, food and beverage taxes, hotel-motel taxes, local motor fuel taxes, etc etc etc.
Receipts are $6,000,000 more this year through November. Inflation is certainly a factor. High gas prices also helped, yes you pay sales tax and motor fuel tax on gas purchases. Rivian only collects .75% sales tax if they sell to someone in Bloomington-Normal. Rivian doesn’t pay local tax on sales outside of Bloomington-Normal.
Note cannabis revenue, previously Normal didn’t want to say how much they collect. Both charts show Normal isn’t spending receipts.
It seems the Normal elite are building up quite the fund balances to use the money of those leaving the state to be able to pay off their debt in the future. I have no idea if a town could get pandemic insurance for loss of tax receipts if something happens again, but I would rather Normal pay off its heavy, heavy debt load faster and not pay costly interest. Marc Tiritilli made a great point this past week: why did a town of 50,000 need to rack up $100 million in debt? Here’s another one: why does a town of 50,000 need $30 million in reserves? Is it because Normal has racked up so much pension liability it is on the hook for?
Normal hoards our tax dollars in many places. Expect those dollars to be diverted to the underpass, Uptown 2.0, and to fulfill the Mayor’s other selfish legacy projects. Just because money is in one fund doesn’t prevent it from being diverted. Enterprise funds are not even safe from being used elsewhere. They have diverted money before, with majority council support, expect they will do it again.
Stan Nord