By: Diane Benjamin The first thing that is NEVER discussed is what government should do verses what they are doing. Budgeting requires making choices, Bloomington has decided roads aren’t that important. What they want it more important. You will probably be saddled with some type of water park and a sports complex this year. Let’s […]
Check out the speaker list at the US Conference of Mayors. It was a party for leftists. By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=20847 I wonder if Jenn Carrillo and Jeff Crabill know the City already does lots of wealth redistribution? All of the below are low or no interest loans and grants just in this one check […]
By: Diane Benjamin Town Council meeting TUESDAY http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3172 (delayed for MLK Day) Misc spending: CDM is Children Discovery Museum. It’s easy to give your money as a memorial! This is what you need to see: (yes it’s complicated) The Town of Normal owns the building at 104 W. North. It is currently rented to Dan Brady […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and Payroll for Monday: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=20735 Two more employees are spiking their pensions – this is the penalty charged to taxpayers When VenuWorks took over management of the Coliseum they wanted to remodel at taxpayer expense. The City borrowed the money from them for the remodel. These are […]
The first public comment speaker was Karyn Smith (not Karen) – also a candidate for Normal Town Council. Other than her comments last night I don’t know anything else about her – yet. By: Diane Benjamin When Chris Koos began public comment he made clear he would time limit the speakers so they could get […]
By: Diane Benjamin As of 3/31/18 Normal had total debt of $89,823,286. $88,125,000 won’t be paid off until 2041. Interest rates range from 2.00% to 6.30%. Source As of 4/30/18 Bloomington had total debt of $242,010,034. $57,095,000 won’t be paid off until 2035. The interest rates aren’t listed. $173,646,119 is liabilities for pensions and associated […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council has until April 1st to fire VenuWorks: PDF page 2 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=10901 The Coliseum (Grossinger Motors Arena) continues to fleece taxpayers. The audited loss for last year was $2,168,534. https://blnnews.com/2018/11/18/the-media-wont-report-this/ Taxpayers were deceived by the consultants before it was built – against the wishes of citizens. They predicted revenues […]
By: Diane Benjamin History Review: Obama won the October 2009 Noble Peace Prize. He had been in office less than 9 months. During his 8 years (a short list): Russia seized Crimea Russia threatened Ukraine and shot down a passenger plane killing everyone on board North Korea developed long-range missiles China built islands for bases […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bills for Monday night: http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3124 Below are $2,018,187.32 in interest payments. Projects never cost what they say because interest is usually not included. If Uptown was such a huge benefit to the Town, your taxes would be going down. Are they? . . . . . . .
By: Diane Benjamin City Manager Tim Gleason was on WJBC this morning. The latest example of “leading from behind” is the new pension spiking policy. Non-union employee policy will change AFTER all the union contracts are changed – if they are changed. Those non-union employees are likely management. Instead of setting an example of putting taxpayers […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council will approve the “business license” at tonight’s meeting: The City claims the $50 is a one-time fee. It won’t be. Businesses are required to re-register every year. That means next year the City Manager will want “cost-recovery” again. Gleason will suddenly realize staff needs to […]
By: Diane Benjamin The budget for the BCPA is buried in the Parks and Rec. I FOIA’d a detailed Parks and Rec budget to see exactly what it costs. The budget predicts Revenue of $3,073,270. It predicts Expenses of $3,349,098. That is a loss of $275,828. But that’s not the story! $1,700,000 of that $3 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Maybe some companies do give cost of living wage increases, I’ve just never heard of any. Of course government exists for government employees, so the Town of Normal has it written in the City Code – twice a year revisions. Wage increases are separate. Tonight the Council has to approve a $51,000 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Moodys doesn’t have Normal at a AAA credit rating. Their rating is still really good – AA1. (Bloomington is AA2). I can’t post link because an account needs to be created, you can create on for free at moodys.com Fitch rating services have a different story – Their rating for Normal is […]
By: Diane Benjamin Illinois People’s action was at the Sugar Creek Art Festival spreading socialism, note they target the young who don’t know that socialism kills: One item on the sign is 100% renewable energy. Evidently they don’t know the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine. Creating batteries to store energy […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Pantagraph thanked Alderman Diana Hauman for serving and for publicly stating she is not running for reelection to the Bloomington City Council because she was not able to develop a cohesive Council. When Judy Stearns and Kevin Lower were members, the Council was very cohesive. Everything they said was ignored. The […]
The Town of Normal still does not have this meeting properly posted. They do have the 7:00 pm meeting posted. Their lawyer needs to re-read the Open Meetings Act. By: Diane Benjamin The notice below is not posted on the Town of Normal website under agendas or anywhere else I looked. This was sent to […]
By: Diane Benjamin Many students are making the decision for technical/trade schools instead of 4 year universities and colleges. High paying jobs are going unfilled because college was deemed mandatory for success for many years. It isn’t, not everybody is meant for college. The cost isn’t worth the debt anymore. Forbes just came out with […]
By: Diane Benjamin Local governments in both Bloomington and Normal forgot a long time ago it isn’t their job to entertain you. Raising taxes to pay for their folly costs everybody. Want to know why Bloomington-Normal is becoming un-affordable? Government tyranny! They know better than you how to spend your money. Worse, capitalism is murdered […]
By: Diane Benjamin In March I posted a story concerning the “luxury” apartments in the new building on Uptown Circle: https://blnnews.com/2018/03/17/more-on-uptown-circle/ At that time Zillow showed 16 apartments for rent. It now shows 14 ranging from $1650 and month to $4200: https://www.zillow.com/b/1-uptown-circle-normal-il-9J8XNH/ Public Comment on items other than the Welcoming Ordinance was at […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Town of Normal has to pay into three pension funds: IMRF, Police, and Fire. The funding for IMRF isn’t horrible, Police and Fire are. What does that say about who the Town management and Council respect and who they don’t? I’m sure you remember property taxes being raised year after year […]
By: Diane Benjamin Documentation for the 7:00 pm meeting is 648 pages: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=16030 The 5:00 pm meeting is only 35 pages: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=16026 This item is on the agenda for discussion at the 5:00 meeting: Another City employee complete with benefits and pension! Then it gets funny because approval is on the Consent Agenda for the 7:00 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Questions for the Council: Last November you held a retreat. EVERY program the City is forcing people to pay for was presented. See PDF page 34 and following: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=14932 There are 15 pages of programs ranked from HIGH priority to Low priority. It looks like cutting programs died the day they were […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2899 Besides the final payments for Koos, Reece, and Aldrich to party in Washington DC at One Voice, questionable frivolous spending is down for Monday’s meeting. These items are contracted, so Normal can’t say now they made bad decisions: Why is Normal handing out down payment assistance? Vote buying? Now this […]
By: Diane Benjamin What we do know: The freshman class this year at ISU was down 9.3% https://blnnews.com/2017/09/07/numbers-lie/ State Farm has cut employees and is cutting more Normal has a budget deficit (local media reports) The Normal Library has decided not to build new – the library WAS the centerpiece of Uptown 2.0 (local […]
By: Diane Benjamin Both Bloomington and Normal have been governed for many years by people who want to build monuments to themselves and call it Quality of Life. Roads are too boring to fund, so are pensions. Valuable tax dollars can’t be used for what isn’t their priority. Instead they raise taxes to fund them […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington will NEVER have enough of your money. Complete control of the local economy means your money is theirs and they are free to take it at will. Monday night they will discuss taking more for their vision. http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15904 Want your roads fixed? Even though Tari Renner and […]
By: Diane Benjamin Aldermen Diana Hauman and Kimberly Bray were both absent Monday night. Bray participated by phone, Hauman wasn’t allowed because she was supposedly on vacation. The City Code says absent alderman can only participate if sick or on business travel. I believe, based on the last time the Towanda-Barnes/ Ireland Grove intersection was […]
By: Diane Benjamin Source: http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2882 (click any pics to enlarge) Plans and spending to replace the library continue: (If your income was down, would you continue with plans to build a new luxury house just because you want it?) Apparently Normal is sending 4 people to DC for One Voice – $1600 each. These are […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OZVoMyplMDjMqjukW6YmbB7_BGsi_x2S/view Connect Transit did not meet in December, so the January report includes data from November and December. Your wealth was redistributed in November to the tune of $921,258 – December was better, a mere $821,259. Just two months of empty buses cost you $1,742,517. Yes, that’s the tax subsidy needed to […]
By: Diane Benjamin The contemporary term false flag describes covert operations that are designed to deceive in such a way that activities appear as though they are being carried out by individual entities, groups, or nations other than those who actually planned and executed them. This statement perfectly describes the meeting Tuesday night held by […]
By: Diane Benjamin First the news: Pepsi is not paying the Ice Center anymore for naming rights ($50,000 a year), the Coliseum is no longer receiving $125,000 from Pepsi as a sponsor there! Both deals expired 3/31/2016. I bet you didn’t know that! total lost: $175,000 Nothing is clearer than the lies told by Arena […]
By: Diane Benjamin On December 20th, during the day and at the BCPA, the City of Bloomington held a budget meeting. The camera angle didn’t allow the charts on the wall to be seen, but a person who was there sent me some of them. If you forgot this meeting – see this story: https://blnnews.com/2017/12/22/budget-meeting-the-video/ The […]
By: Diane Benjamin The video of the December 20th budget meeting at the BCPA has been posted. The camera angle does not allow viewers to see the data the crowd got to see. One thing is clear: Council members like Scott Black believe government is the answer to every problem, they just need to spend […]
By: Diane Benjamin Correction – approving Bills and payroll isn’t on the agenda, so they have nothing to pay! Surprise! http://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-500 Bills and Payroll is not posted for tonight’s meeting. The last time the City failed to post this days in advance of the meeting, a plane ticket for the mayor’s girlfriend was included. What […]
By: Diane Benjamin Agenda and Bills: http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2821 If you want to know why local government isn’t run for citizens, check out where they go to learn how to do their job. NLC is National League of Cities: http://citysummit.nlc.org/schedule/schedule-by-day/ One Voice is the biggest fleece of all! Big group goes to Washington DC to beg for money […]
By: Diane Benjamin On Saturday I reported the 4/30/17 financial statements for the City of Bloomington still haven’t been released, but the City did submit them to the Comptroller’s office last October: https://blnnews.com/2017/12/09/transparent-illegal-all-of-the-above/ The Comptroller’s office now has them posted: See them HERE Tons of interesting easy to read info is available, including comparisons for 3 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal bills for Monday night: http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/279242 When your property taxes go up Monday: You will be told the cost of other people’s retirements went up: The real reason is the debt Normal has incurred building utopia. . Look at all the INTEREST payments below in Monday’s packet. They total $1,628,761.92. It gets […]
By: Diane Benjamin Back when the City Manager did real Monthly Reports, the library traffic was easier to understand. It always included year-to-year comparisons. The summary now doesn’t. See this graph from October 2015: PDF page 43 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=9452 This is what was reported for October 2017: PDF page 11 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15324 Several items are noteworthy: a large […]
By: Diane Benjamin TIF districts are like Greek to most citizens. If you don’t understand them, government will continue to redistribute money and call it Economic Development. TIF’s made easy: Government sets a Tax Increment Finance area. All government bodies in the area have to agree to forgo tax increases due to increasing property values. […]
