By: Diane Benjamin
Illinois has WAY to many units of government with no one watching what they are doing. Just look at your property tax bill, it shows all the taxing bodies where no one from the public attends meetings. Nothing happens at these meetings by chance. Projects often take years.
Thanks to a local data center watchdog for finding the below. The Central Illinois Regional Airport does not have a lot of history on their website from past board meetings. This is NOT on the CIRA website, the watchdog became detective to find it. September 2024 Board minutes:
https://cira.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/September-19-2024-minutes.pdf
Carl is Carl Olson – Airport Manager. EDC is the Economic Development Council, an NGO that gets tax dollars to talk to developers without being required to tell taxpayers. See the Board of Directors: https://www.bnbiz.org/bnedc-board
Dan Brady is currently on the Board, but he wasn’t in 2024. City Managers Pam Reece and Jeff Jurgens are also listed. So is County Administrator Cassy Taylor along with various other people you would know.
Data Centers aren’t economic development. Many reports say local labor isn’t used to build them. Once built, they take very few employees to operate. Economic Development isn’t using huge amounts of water and electricity while creating very few permanent jobs.
December 2024 minutes: https://cira.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/December-17-2024-minutes.pdf
Why did CIRA want this property in City limits? To use City water?
Don’t forget CIRA lied about why soccer had to leave the property, it wasn’t too dangerous: https://blnnews.com/2018/04/05/faa-cira-and-soccer/
CIRA also got Springfield to pass taxing the entire county instead of just Bloomington-Normal.
Trust CIRA to tell the truth?
Any data center currently in planning is behind the curve. Tech is changing super fast. Just recently there was a breakthrough that minimizes the amount of memory needed for each processing ticket.
There’s a great possibility that unless something spectacular is being done at any proposed local DC, that it will never run at capacity or be abandoned as soon as any tax incentive runs out.
As a rural taxpayer, the public private and commerce “strategy” game at our expense is getting old. Do not appreciate paying county Airport- CIRA taxes of any type.
Both major parties coreographed all of this $$$
The ones getting big pay and pensions for life at customer and taxpayer and kids expense.
Calling everthingnAI or digital tools or innovation/intelligence and safety/security is a massive money funnel. Data Centers are another dangerous short and long term Chamber and political partnership in machine learning/surveillance. A data analytics strategy game in which you are all the test rats . Remember the colleges and universities and taxing bodies all in AI? $$
MANY of the mgt, execs and leaders are retiring and getting huge pay, comp/bonus and retirement pay implementing the roadmap.
They were embedded over 20 years ago from local and Illinois “military and educator $ systems” (Military and college grad recruitment and job placement agreements). $$$
The data abuses in operations locally are wide and dangerous to many and helping very few real down to earth people and taxpayers.
ESG, financial orgs/scammers, farm orgs, tech contracts and shady platforms and data handling are mostly what is happening.(Too many players locally who do not understand but get higher pay for the all in AI and tax/data funnel game). U of I/Deloitte/SAP is just one of em and manyore.
Using platforms for robbing Peter to pay Paul and Paul is the Maestro/Conductor.
County Chamber of Commerces and growth has become something it should never have been. Technocrat MLM/pyramid schemes.
There are major issues with data centers and other fast track projects politically and locally and countywide motivated
Follow the money and leadership folk (and the platforms and data handling) Many vunerablities.
Now forcing data centers is yet another “for our future and kids” opportunity and growth mantra by elite political class.$$
They focus in small communities where virtually noone knows the detail or has Insight or has time to question or dispute it all. (Basically middle and vunerable small communities)
It all sounds so innovative but health and privacy and social risk for Co2 sequestruan and Data Centers et. al. were never addressed properly (like most projects Central Illinois and McLean county) and Illinois.
Insurance is a huge play to play player in their strategy and model. CIRA just another taker for their gain.
Typical. Just pay you folks and like it!!
Believe it or not, the EDC Board at least as representatives on it from companies and organizations that somewhat matter albeit the personalities probably remain the same. See John Penn still can’t give it up even in retirement. Leave it to the leadership thinking a data center is an economic positive for BN. BN could have been great but the local, unhinged egos just can’t and wouldn’t get out of the way.