By: Diane Benjamin https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-SgGF0uzhIlXeWqdYlJ0blXEhDPLrrfh/view I could write the same story as every other month. Expenses for October were over $1,1 MILLION, Income was a little less than $59,000, meaning a loss for ONE MONTH of $973,317. No big deal since government keeps throwing them millions of dollars to them to run empty buses. Of course […]
By: Diane Benjamin A total of 28 companies are now together to force Washington DC to mandate ONLY electric vehicles sales by 2030. Rivian is one of them: https://carbuzz.com/news/tesla-joins-forces-with-rivian-and-lucid?fbclid=IwAR1YXsy5C8YHQnRkDVCHzySENQ_LlyCPIfarQdNj-lFG7vPd2F52hXTv6_E Rivian wants to force you to buy a ridiculously priced vehicle because they produce it. How about we all grow radishes and get a law passed […]
By: Diane Benjamin Someday SLBB is going to end. It cost you MILLIONS because employees were allowed to spike their pensions which meant additional funds had to be paid into the retirement system. Add that to the MILLIONS spent on a never used fire station and more spent on a never used water tower. Add […]
By: Diane Benjamin It should be obvious, but evidently too many people think government needs your money, so they vote democrat. How many tax increases does the State of Illinois have to hand you before you figure out government is working for itself – NOT YOU? Illinois Democrats have no intention of fixing the unaffordable […]
By: Diane Benjamin The information below was sent to the Normal Town Council a few days ago by a resident of Normal. It concerns the Town’s plans for the additional $.04 gas tax. “Before you spend $’s on bike paths, bike/road new construction or consider Connect Transit funding increases, watch this video.” “Bus corner extension […]
By: Diane Benjamin The first floor of One Uptown Circle has never had a tenant. The second floor is rented by the Town of Normal for close to $36,000 a month. Need a place to live? WGLT estimated taxpayers got stuck with 60% of the cost of this building. https://blnnews.com/2020/01/03/1-uptown-circle-the-old-story/ Instead of affordable housing, Normal […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal has gone from 10 minute meetings with no discussion before spending millions of dollars to bloviating just to hear themselves talk. I can’t possibly recap everything that happened, so I will pick what I think is important. The other media can fill you in on what the Town thinks happened. Last […]
By: Diane Benjamin A reader just found this story from May: https://www.bicycleretailer.com/retail-news/2020/05/13/exclusive-sale-greets-protesters-illinois-bike-shop The story is about the citizens who showed up to protest Chris Koos’ business being open while many citizens weren’t allowed to make a living. It even includes his now infamous image taunting the protesters: BUT, The story has a quote from Koos […]
Monday night the Town of Normal is finally “fixing” their Public Comment Policy. The Town is making sure it as difficult as possible for citizens: PDSF page 105: https://www.normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/12612/Council-Packet–PDF Right now citizens aren’t allowed to talk about anything not on the agenda. That was obviously illegal and the Town knew it. Instead of just having […]
By: Diane Benjamin Democrats are desperate to pass the Progressive Income Tax. It is a scam that will hurt Illinois as the people with the money to leave will leave. It has happened in every state that has tried the same. The amendment does open the possibility to tax retirement income, but probably not for […]
Just an FYI folks. See the New Illinois website here: https://www.newillinoisstate.org/ The video is inspiring! The person who sent this to me included this note: New Illinois will use the constitutionally provided method for declaring a new state. Old Illinois may be bribed to accept it, if New Illinois takes on more than its share […]
by: Diane Benjamin First a little history. From the Pantagraph How Time Flies 1/21/2020: Have your property taxes gone down? Responsible adults know being able to make the payments is not a good philosophy to live by. If you want to make the neighbors jealous by living in a mansion with two expensive vehicles parked […]
By: Diane Benjamin Just a reminder: Chemberly Cummings wants to make laws in Springfield to control you, but she refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance. She put the red sign over her camera. She hates America and is unfit for ANY office. She did not get her internet connection fixed, the quality is still […]
By: Diane Benjamin All the Financial Information for the Town of Normal is now posted on the Comptroller’s website. It includes reports on the FIVE TIF districts. This site is for citizens because they are in a much easier to read format. The reports used to be easy to find, the Democrat Comptroller redesigned the […]
By: Diane Benjamin The audit is done, not released though: Evidently the City doesn’t think they have to print the P-Card spending list anymore, just 1 big amount. Amazon purchases are listed without a descriptions – pages of them. Link to Bills and Payroll: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=25260 Agenda: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1090&Inline=True Tari wants to re-appoint Rob Fazzini to the […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nMCbsR02FZVZZcIO2k0rG8eyPHwSKrFI/view The Connect Transit Board met on September 22. Success! Over $1 million lost in August: A few of the listed expenses: Why does an “essential service” have to advertise? See PDF page 55 – they still think they can recruit more people to give up driving to ride the bus: What […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/17188/CAFR20-FINAL-DOC From Normal’s just issued financial statements as of 3/31/2020: Note the Long-Term total debt – $224,909,947. It increased more than $25 million in 1 year. What makes up that debt? $84,320,000 is bond debt, the IEPA loan doesn’t have interest expense. PDF page 31 Below is a chart showing the biggest […]
By: Diane Benjamin The second installment of your property taxes are due on 9/17. The check you will be writing is higher because of many things, but a BIG one is Tax Increment Financing. TIF’s The Uptown TIF is Normal’s huge one. The 2020 comprehensive report isn’t available yet, so I have to use the […]
By: Diane Benjamin During Tuesday’s night Normal Town Council meeting much was made about the Financial Trends Reports and what a valuable tool it is. This year it isn’t. It recaps what happened from 4/1/2019 through 3/31/2020. Something happened around the time this report ends: Glance through the report. It contains little current information: http://normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/17189/Financial-Trend-and-Condition-Report-FY2019-20 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Much of the meeting was spent talking about the 3/31/2020 financial statements and the financial trends report. Neither are on-line yet, so they aren’t worth discussing much here. Many accolades were thrown at staff for doing a good job preparing for the audit. I agree, but isn’t that what they get paid […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington Committee of the Whole tonight: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1080&Inline=True It looks like Mboka Mwilambwe doesn’t know the city is spending money taxpayers had to work for so the City can steal way too much of it. He wants to give employees another paid vacation day! I looked at 2 of the latest union contracts […]
By: Diane Benjamin Maybe the below will tell you why the public is encouraged to watch this meeting on-line instead of showing up. In an “emergency”, keep citizens from speaking. WEEK is the only media I’ve seen saying the virus has likely been here for some time: https://week.com/2020/03/20/mclean-county-reports-3-new-confirmed-cases-of-covid-19/?fbclid=IwAR0txyysl-6hw6DFVEnpzQ_g8xkdJh7ESaf0Re0UoDVIsLaSu2wYe3l0ukg Packet for Bloomington Monday night: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1067&Inline=True Hey […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader Defining what it means to be Progressive is Nikita Richard, failed candidate for McLean County Clerk: Nikita “tagged” McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael and McLean County Sheriff Jon Sandage apparently to embarrassed them into allowing prisoners here to vote. Sheriff Sandage responded: Next, Kathy Michael responded, these comments appear […]
By: Diane Benjamin Let’s talk debt. Want proof the Town doesn’t care about anything except the ability to make the payments? Budget: https://www.normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/16302/2020-2025-Budget PDF page 233: What that means is the total cost, including interest, is immaterial. That is why Normal has bonds they are paying ZERO principal on. They can afford to throw away […]
By: Diane Benjamin Need proof Normal’s spending is to provide union jobs? Keep reading. When the private sector isn’t providing jobs, government is the only alternative. Mike Matejka is the Governmental Affairs Director, Great Plains Laborers District Council representing LiUNA locals in central Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. Why is Mike Matejka arranging official […]
By: Diane Benjamin Chris Koos posted this on Facebook: Other than bad grammer, this statement proves he is clueless. He has not been paying attention to citizens because he doesn’t want to! Facts Chris: 1 Uptown Circle is a failure because of the ridiculous lease your previous Council approved to get the building built 1 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Previous story based on the Budget Session documents: https://blnnews.com/2020/01/28/normal-expect-property-tax-increases-to-continue/ It has always annoyed me when Koos and company claim Normal’s debt isn’t a problem. They think it isn’t because they are NOT looking at the big picture, they only look at what payments will be required every year. They don’t care about […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington has finally posted the 4/30/19 financial statement. OPEB = Other Post Employment Benefits Both Bloomington and Normal are in more debt now because of pensions and OPEB. Bloomington has almost $231,000,000 in long term debt and growing Normal has more than $186,000,000 in long term debt and growing. Illinois isn’t even […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve heard from numerous sources State Farm is not done downsizing their workforce. If local governments don’t tighten their belts, the flight of residents will do it for them. These numbers were complied from what Normal reported to the Comptroller’s office: Source: Normal – Warehouse Note the number of employees. Remember […]
By: Diane Benjamin Why did the Sports Complex come back? It looks like it’s being pushed by the Convention and Visitors Bureau: (CVB) That email was included in one of the FOIA request I received. Another email shows the Normal City Manager’s response to a citizens opposed to the complex. I redacted he name: Meanwhile, […]
By: Diane Benjamin The local politicians have forgotten: Likely most didn’t run to serve, they ran to rule. The people are sick of: excessive taxation handouts to government “friends” rotten roads sole focus on downtowns interference in free markets government pensions and lavish benefits laws being ignored citizens being ignored redistribution of the people’s wealth […]
By: Diane Benjamin We know people are leaving Illinois. We also know the people in charge think they can fix everything with higher taxes. Illinois is spiraling out of control while those who can take steps to reverse the course have their heads buried deep in propaganda. Never forget what party is in complete control […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari did an interview with WGLT two days ago: listen to the 2nd link starting around 10:30 https://www.wglt.org/post/aldermen-pass-budget-struggle-new-spending-designation-0?fbclid=IwAR2Jx7sTc9iwMkVidRvhpYMO1qW6fVsAusw2AvgTqosU6rvBSisBhLRyK84#stream/0 None of the below got covered in the WGLT story. If the current Council thought they were setting a path for spending next year, according to Tari, they are wrong. He claimed budgets are […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council held a Committee of the Whole meeting last night. The first topic was roads. City Manager Tim Gleason did a nice summary – just hit Play below. Points made during the discussion: 1) The ratings chart for streets has changed, the City thought they were too conservative for […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve been writing about the Coliseum and the lies media repeats for years! CIAM and VenuWorks created their own financial statements. Every local media uses their numbers and repeats them like gospel. Both can say anything they want in those statements – they create them. Numbers reported by both are not accurate, […]
By: Diane Benjamin City Manager Tim Gleason has mentioned to Council could pass increasing the Gas Tax with a sunset date. History shows the Council will cancel any sunset clause. I found this while looking for something else: PDF page 9 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=6766 The Council not only cancelled the .25% sunset in 2014, in 2015 they […]
By: Diane Benjamin All Tari’s structural deficits put forth only to raise taxes have disappeared. Bloomington is now on a spending spree! Proposed budget for next year: http://www.cityblm.org/home/showdocument?id=18372 Page 349 and following Remember when Bloomington wasn’t interested because they had too many other expenses? According to the last finance report, next years budget only spends […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=20987 More pensions spiking: (the penalties will come late) Coliseum continues to fleece: Employee partying, but called Community Relations. Were you invited? Springfield Law firm MONTHLY charges: I have no idea what this is, but Nov-Jan wasn’t paid until February? Is […]
No special meeting posted, a demolition permit will likely be issued very soon. Planning to vote now? By: Diane Benjamin Chris Koos seems to have forgotten he does not have overwhelming support from the citizens of Normal: (2017 election results) 12 more votes would have ended the Koos reign of debt and development terror. The […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tonight the Normal Council will be meeting for just a few minutes. The only highlight is selling 2 garbage trucks to the City of Kewanee for $260,000. Normal already bought replacements. It is really tough to keep track of all the Uptown History and how much taxpayers money has been invested, so […]
