By: Diane Benjamin See this WGLT article: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-04-24/d87-optimistic-but-acknowledges-challenges-of-banning-cell-phones-at-bhs District 87 is planning to lower their property tax grab by $2 million, which is 1/3 of a revenue estimate they plan to receive from the 1% Sales Tax. Don’t expect your property taxes to go down. Your assessed values will be going up. If District 87 […]
By: Diane Benjaminb A motion was made at the beginning of last night’s Council meeting to suspend parts of the Agenda until the March Committee of the Whole meeting. Alderman Danenberger wanted the staff and Council to have the opportunity to attend the candlelight vigil for the weekend murder victims. Aldermen Cody Hendricks seconded the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Continuation of this story: https://blnnews.com/2025/02/17/aclu-of-illinois-government-controlled/ I hope by posting this information you realize Illinois uses your tax dollars to further agendas they didn’t state when they ran for office. It also shows NGO’s like the ACLU claim to protect civil liberties while actually only protecting rights government endorse. Finding payments made by […]
By: Diane Benjamin 2 things from last night’s Bloomington Committee of the Whole meeting prove government doesn’t operate with the same mentality as the private sector: 1) . Donna Boelen resigned on December 23rd and was replaced last Monday by Michael Mosley. It must be too difficult to update slides used at Council meetings. (See […]
By: Diane Benjamin Continuation of this story: https://blnnews.com/2024/11/29/alleged-illegal-activity-at-mclean-county/ Lizzy is Elizabeth Johnston. She plans to be the new County Board chair since the Democrats are now the majority. (I told you this is going to be fun!) The text messages below are between Trevor Sierra and Lizzy Johnson. Trevor is requesting a refund for the […]
By: Diane Benjamin I attended the bid opening in Uptown Normal today for building the underpass. The lowest bid was $35+ million, the only other bid was $40+ million. Watch the video. One bidder submitted a HUGE stack of papers, the other didn’t. More details tomorrow.
By: Diane Benjamin Tonight’s meeting got changed from a Committee of the Whole to a Special Meeting. Besides the below there is a presentation on Community Development Block Grant spending. https://d2kbkoa27fdvtw.cloudfront.net/cityblm/75de54c5ef363097fbab4d251ab6c43a0.pdf Of course funding pensions is the reason (always) for raising property taxes. Government knows they are required to fund the lavish Illinois pensions but […]
By: Diane Benjamin The meeting last night wasn’t long. The video has a Township Meeting at the beginning. Nothing was pulled from the Consent Agenda and almost no discussion took place on the one Regular Agenda Item. There were 3 Public comments. Surena Fish spoke again about the alternative school locating in the old Pantagraph […]
By: Diane Benjamin Agenda: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/f7304a01-5bbe-11ee-ae13-0050569183fa-791fe512-602c-4d20-98c8-ecdbbed39134-1729802445.pdf These items will take a lot of time before Public Comment: A few fun items that won’t be discussed unless an alderman pulls them from the Consent Agenda: It looks like a grant will cover this cost. Solar and LED are fine if they stay on all night. It will […]
By: Diane Benjamin Agenda: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/4a8ac870-5bc1-11ee-ae13-0050569183fa-791fe512-602c-4d20-98c8-ecdbbed39134-1729193567.pdf From the documentation on the first item: Iverson Consulting is being paid up to $40,000 to advise the City through December. Playing catchup is expensive. The infrastructure wouldn’t be in poor condition if streets and sidewalks hadn’t been underfunded for decades. Why was the agenda: Prepared by: Josh Hansen, Compensation […]
By: Diane Benjamin How do I know that? From their website: https://connect-transit.com/about/our-fleet . Now see this story: https://readlion.com/biden-harris-admin-recalls-hundreds-of-electric-buses-amid-fire-concerns/ Excerpt: The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) issued a warning Wednesday about 483 electric transit buses being recalled over safety defects, according to a safety advisory. Phoenix Motorcars is voluntarily recalling Proterra 800V catalyst vehicles from 2020 to […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal hasn’t submitted data to the Comptroller’s office from the year ended 3/31/24 yet, it’s only been 6 1/2 months since year end. Bloomington hasn’t submitted data from 4/30/24 yet, they are only 5 1/2 months after year end. The below lists local tax receipts for the last 3 years. A summary […]
By: Diane Benjamin In case you missed it, CIRA got a Federal grant for improvements: https://www.centralillinoisproud.com/news/local-news/federal-dollars-coming-to-cira-to-buy-new-safety-equipment-rehabilitate-runway/ “Bringing home the bacon” to buy votes wouldn’t be needed if the Federal Government wasn’t trying to control everything by spending $2 Trillion more a year than it receives from taxpayers. Like inflation? Unless the size and spending of […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tonight’s agenda: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/f7280584-5bbe-11ee-ae13-0050569183fa-d854eb82-3702-4140-9de6-ac3a8e3f379d-1726858367.pdf Word Salad #1: Word Salad #2: Note: Both of these items are on the Consent Agenda and won’t be discussed unless an alderman pulls them for discussion. The first one authorizes the City to issue bonds for the water projects your water bill will triple to cover. The second […]
By: Diane Benjamin McLean County property taxes aren’t going down – look at this slide from last week’s County Board meeting and see if you can tell why I know that: Need more time? I can wait . . . . The overall spending is decreasing because the COVID bucks aren’t rushing into the coffers […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington supposedly has a policy of not fixing roads if the water lines need replaced. It’s a great policy that eliminates having to resurface roads numerous times because of water main breaks. Evidently downtown roads don’t fall under that policy. Yesterday this was posted to the website: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/Home/Components/News/News/10139/1394 Front […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.25newsnow.com/2024/09/02/normal-decide-tuesday-1-local-grocery-tax-replace-state-tax Excepts: Maybe 4 member of the council will vote yes for a local grocery tax which allows the 3 running for mayor to vote no. Maybe a few will be “sick” and unable to attend. 😁 I don’t plan to watch, you need to. This is why EVERY tax increase should […]
By: Diane Benjamin I got this adorable insert with a tiny State Tax refund check: Illinois is spending more funding pensions than they do on K-12 education. It proves who is a priority in Illinois. Keep reading, expect the almost 20% of all spending to increase. The back side brags about Illinois collecting $2 billion […]
By: Diane Benjamin The property Normal is going to build a new Fire Station on is 1.69 acres. Normal paid $450,000 for it even after area residents petitioned the Town to just move it across the street: https://blnnews.com/2020/06/04/normal-isnt-listening/ It could have been located by the Town owned dog park, of course the opinions of citizens […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal took a huge hit by Fitch: https://blnnews.com/2024/08/15/normal-is-no-longer-rated-aaa/ Bloomington took a much smaller hit and now has the same rating as Normal AA. Excerpts below, the ability to tax you to death does impact government credit ratings. Did you know the population is declining? You can read the rest of the report […]
By: Diane Benjamin Illinois is second only to New Jersey for the highest property taxes in the country: https://www.fool.com/research/property-tax-rates-by-state/ Last year many local government seized the increased assessed values of your property to collect more property taxes. They are taxing you on unrealized gains! If you don’t plan on selling your home the assessed value […]
By: Diane Benjamin Review this story from yesterday: https://blnnews.com/2024/07/29/when-local-governments-celebrate-grants/ Next read this story: https://foreignaffairs.co.nz/2024/07/30/mil-osi-usa-following-sorensens-advocacy-mclean-county-receives-funding-to-extend-historic-route-66-trail/ Rep Eric Sorensen announced a grant to McLean County to design the final 9 miles of the Historic Route 66 Bike and Pedestrian Trail. $675,000 to DESIGN. Another grant will be needed for construction, I think in the past the feds […]
By: Diane Benjamin Both the Federal government and Illinois spend more money than they collect. Every grant celebrated isn’t “bringing home the bacon”, it’s destroying your future prosperity by devaluing the dollar. Like inflation? Unlike responsible citizens that live within their means, government doesn’t. Click the link for more facts, especially the numbers government reports […]
By: Diane Benjamin 3 people showed up for Public Comment at the June Connect Transit meeting. No, none of them were there to mention the taxpayers abuse by their ridiculous losses. Just May was almost $1.5 million. All 3 speakers were employees of Connect. They can barely be seen because most of the screen is […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City is developing a nasty habit of not posting event reports for the arena or BCPA until I FOIA them. No reports had been posted since a 5/17 performance to the BCPA site: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-2105#docan2735_6873_64 The Arena shows nothing since March 15th: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-2104#docan2735_6873_64 There are still many event reports missing, evidently keeping […]
By: Diane Benjamin From the Monthly Financial Summary presented Monday night at the Bloomington City Council meeting: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/30491/638543232820130000 General Fund balance projected for the fiscal year ending 4/30/24: Don’t get excited about the City having almost $50 million in reserves. They’ve already spent around $15 million of it on buying the Owens property and paying […]
By: Diane Benjamin This is on the website for the BCPA: https://www.artsblooming.org/about/history I guarantee this tax won’t expire in 2025. The sales tax passed to fix the “structural deficit” will never expire either even though the deficit was gone years ago. See this document: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/Home/ShowDocument?id=6644 It shows all the tax increases to balance the 2015 […]
By: Diane Benjamin See this WGLT story: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2024-06-17/bloomington-mayor-enthused-about-housing-symposium-results 1st Excerpt: . Public-Private partnerships leave PUBLIC holding the bag. If you didn’t read this story a couple days ago, you need to: https://blnnews.com/2015/07/23/bloomington-developer-gets-freebies/ Snyder Development partnered with Bloomington and didn’t pay, I still haven’t heard if they ever paid. That means all other taxpayers paid more […]
By: Diane Benjamin The meeting is going to take one more story after this one, probably tomorrow. The majority of the Council has zero business experience but Alderman Sheila Montney did a great job bringing them to reality. More on that later. First you need to know some history: I wrote this story on July […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember this story? https://blnnews.com/2021/06/29/whats-so-secret-bloomington/ It contains this pic: . Next, keep in mind Bloomington will be rebranding itself: https://blnnews.com/2024/02/28/do-you-only-see-white-doctors-gleason/ Of course rebranding is just one of the many things government employees do for themselves when their job is supposed to be making life better for citizens. A reader sent this pic last […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council did vote to buy the former Owens Nursery location but not before Alderman Sheila Montney revealed what Tim Gleason did. In January he made a verbal agreement with a realtor in Decatur to look for somewhere to relocate Public Works. He sent an email to the Council in […]
By: Diane Benjamin Illinois Budget: https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/103/SB/PDF/10300SB0251eng.pdf How many of your tax dollars are going to illegal immigrants? That is ONE BILLION allocated to replacing the citizens that have left this state with unvetted illegals. This is listed elsewhere, funny how the amounts don’t match the above: Maybe passing a bill in the middle of the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Instead of a LOW – it’s tragic. Connect managed to lose more than $1.4 million in just April: PDF page 7: https://connect-transit.com/file/2405/05%2028%202024_Board%20Meeting%20Packet.pdf Compare that with 3 short years ago – May meeting in 2021: PDF page 9 https://connect-transit.com/file/186/May%2025%202021%20Board%20Packet.pdf That is an increased loss of $461,194 in just 3 years. All of those […]
By: Diane Benjamin This slide was in the streets presentation at last night’s Bloomington City Council: The entire presentation will be on the City website sometime today, right now it isn’t. Remember when I told you the City could push a button or two and know how many lanes miles are rated the worst? Obviously […]
By: Diane Benjamin City Manager Jeff Jurgens has some comments at the end of the meeting – before they went into Executive Session to discuss buying property. Expect an agenda item soon so they can build another fire station. It won’t be in north east Bloomington. I’m just guessing here! Jeff stated the entire bulk […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below are the only roads in the 2024 Resurfacing plan: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/departments/public-works/bloomington-streets#ad-image-1 On the left side is the rating on the scale of 3 to 8. Total 6.11 miles! Fort Jesse is 3 lanes .45 x 3 = 1.35 lane miles Towanda is 5 lanes .3 x 5 = 1.5 lane miles Washington […]
By: Diane Benjamin Part #5 will link to all previous stories: https://blnnews.com/2024/05/12/road-ratings-part-5/ The pic below shows all of the ratings of Bloomington roads. https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/36eea74c6ede4cd08e7d6ec03ed14246 All are rated between 3 and 8. The only roads I consider better than mediocre are light orange, yellow, and lime. The dark red (3’s) are the worst rated and the […]
By: Diane Benjamin On tonight’s agenda: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/f701e2e2-5bbe-11ee-ae13-0050569183fa-d854eb82-3702-4140-9de6-ac3a8e3f379d-1715296014.pdf The Lake Bloomington building burned down 5 years ago. The City collected $536,581.87 from insurance according to these docs: PDF page 80: https://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1167&Inline=True That document is from the May 9, 2022 Council packet. The estimate in 2022 was $565,000 for the total project. (PDF page 90). Since inflation […]
By: Diane Benjamin Link to all previous stories from Part #4: https://blnnews.com/2024/05/10/road-ratings-part-4/ Sorry, but I’m still not done mapping the rated 3 roads. This part has a ton of tiny roads and small roads with pieces rated 3 and other pieces rated 4. Part #6 should be the end. Just so you know, some of […]
By: Diane Benjamin Part 3 has a link to the first two stories: https://blnnews.com/2024/05/09/road-ratings-part-3/ I might be able to finish this with one more part. Keep in mind I’m only summarizing the number of lane miles for the worst roads – those rated 3. There are MANY just slightly better at 4. The picture below […]
