By: Diane Benjamin Mayor Renner was in Cuba, so Karen Schmidt conducted the meeting. The Coliseum got more of your money and it sounds like much more to come: Evidently the design of the Coliseum is REALLY bad – Hales plans to budget more changes to the building in coming years. Watch the video starting […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Pantagraph has a ridiculous editorial today urging the City to spend spend spend on downtown. They must not realize with building the Coliseum and covering the losses, rehabbing the BCPA, and with the TIF dollars from the past – Bloomington is probably close to spending $100,000,000. Don’t forget to add the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Nothing citizens said at the Citizen’s Summit mattered. Nothing Bring It On Bloomington said mattered either. The Budget Task Force was a joke. The Downtown Stakeholders meeting held last night was equally for show, except the City most likely bought the food that was served. The stakeholders nixed a downtown hotel! Therefore, […]
There is yet another meeting tonight – again not on the City Calendar. It is on the Home page of the City website: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=18&recordid=3777&returnURL=%2findex.aspx It is about Hamilton Road. Interested parties should attend. This one starts at 5:00 at Prairie Vista. The only meeting on the calendar is Citizens Beautification. By: Diane Benjamin This meeting […]
By: Diane Benjamin Something happened at the Bloomington Council meeting last night that wasn’t on the agenda! I hope the Live Stream is permanently repaired before the next meeting. It didn’t work last night. Tom Dabareiner, Community Development, stated that a meeting will be held on September 22nd – but it’s only for the downtown […]
By: Diane Benjamin It’s hard to know where to start with the marathon meeting. Just the council meeting was almost 3 hours long. That’s after a special meeting was held and Bloomington Township meeting. The Council were captives from 5:00pm until almost 10:00. If you don’t know what a PROGRESSIVE is, you should. It’s a […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Pantagraph has been running this ad on Facebook: I will wait for you to stop laughing! waiting . . . waiting . . . Today an entire article is devoted to praising the City of Bloomington’s for closing last year under budget. Some things they meant to mislead you about: (tonight: […]
The Pantagraph never says who writes theirs, so I’m not either! It was written by a citizen sick of seeing tax dollars wasted. DOWNTOWN Bloomington The citizens of Bloomington have heard on multiple occasions the Mayor’s proclamations, “Without a vibrant downtown, economic development will not occur.” “A vibrant downtown is the primary means to spur […]
I need reader support to continue bringing you news the rest of the media ignores: Contribute Now If you appreciate the truth, please contribute! By: Diane Benjamin Last night’s Committee of the Whole had a missing alderman: Scott Black. Two citizens spoke during public comment. In an attempt to limit free speech, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Years ago a guy wanted to buy the old Coachman Motel property on East Washington and turn it into a parking lot. Instead of collecting money and handing over the property title, the City told him they didn’t want a parking lot there. Instead, under City ownership, this is what it looks […]
By: Diane Benjamin Somebody at the City finally read the Open Meetings Act LAW! This note is included on the Agenda for Monday night: David Hales has an ongoing problem approving minutes. Last March I had to file a Freedom of Information Act for the minutes of the meeting held 9/21/15. What happened at that […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you missed Jeff’s comments at last Monday’s Bloomington City Council meeting, just hit PLAY below. He spoke during Public Comment, not on an agenda item. I’ve been thinking a lot about the proposals for a downtown hotel. From on-line comments and emails, there is a lot of support for a hotel […]
By: Diane Benjamin I find it hilarious that Renner’s claim to economic development victories include two businesses stolen from Normal: Dick’s Sporting Goods and a Kroger’s Superstore. Both wanted more room, more room just happen to available in Bloomington – of course tax rebates didn’t hurt. He still claims Greentop, Hy-vee, and now Ovation theaters. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal’s Uptown TIF began in May of 2003. Remember, TIF’s are created to encourage economic development. The hope is any money borrowed or promised will be paid back by the increase taxes received. The Town of Normal 2010 – 2015 TIF Reports are on the Comptroller’s website: http://warehouse.illinoiscomptroller.com/Downloads.cfm See the chart below. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Making a trip downtown requires pics of almost empty buses – so here’s a couple: Speaking of downtown, the law firm representing the former Coliseum Manager is moving to Hershey Road. They are leaving downtown because parking, accessibility for clients, and space issues made it difficult to stay in their current location. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Review of the downtown hotel timeline: May 2015 Jeff Giebelhausen wants the City to pay $8.2 million for “shovel ready” land. He wanted a fast answer – he claimed his option for the land had a time limit. It failed to get support of the Council. The proposal included tearing down the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Renner isn’t responding to the market, he’s trying to create one. Just like he claims bike paths and buses are the future, he continues to claim Bloomington’s future is downtown. Decades of massive spending haven’t been enough. Here’s a little Renner history. Not included are the Downtown Streetscape Plan and the Downtown […]
By: Diane Benjamin I remember heated discussions over Master Plans. The Council was told they were advisory only. Just because they passed, it didn’t mean the Council had to implement them. Not according to Special Meeting tonight – 6:05 pm. It’s really boring to spend money on funding pensions, repair streets, and maintain infrastructure, so […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below is another email I received under the Freedom of Information Act while looking for something else. It was written by Alderman Jim Fruin. Normal’s elections for council members are At-Large. That means nobody on the their Council represents citizens, everybody represents the entire town. It also means the Council members don’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin Government wastes your money! Proof: An unused fire station and unused water tower. $$$$ – MILLIONS – $$$$ poof, up in smoke and nobody in jail. Those are just huge examples of utter incompetence. Many many more exist on a small scale. Just this week Council and staff time were needed for […]
By: Diane Benjamin Looks like the business owners do, the City not so much. Do citizens have to take care of the streets and sidewalks too? Does this mean Giebelhausen can’t find an investor? Cabelas Bargain Cave
By: Diane Benjamin Governor Rauner ran on a platform of making Illinois business friendly. He has failed because the Democrat super-majority in Springfield doesn’t care if companies move across the border to save millions of dollars. They don’t care if Caterpillar leaves the state along with other companies who can’t compete in this high-tax high-regulation […]
By: Diane Benjamin Thanks to a reader who pointed this out to me! Around 1/3 of my stories are tips from readers, I REALLY appreciate it. FY 2016 Adopted Budget Book 1-Budget Overview & General Fundd The below is from Book One Budget Document on the City Website: (including the spelling) http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=21&parent=8220 Note it’s 2016 […]
No – you aren’t safe. Evidently everybody can’t attend, so they changed the meeting from Committee of the Whole to Special Meeting. By: Diane Benjamin Mayor-Developer Renner just can’t stop creating his version of utopia in Bloomington. He’s the king of paying people (with your money) to create economic development. The local, state, and […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Mayor was on WGLT yesterday: http://wglt.org/post/bloomington-mayor-tari-renner-tif-district-downtown-and-city-manager-hales#stream/0 Much of the conversation was the same as his WJBC interview this morning. WGLT appears to love him and wants him re-elected since the host brought it up over and over. Renner plans to tout his record of creating minimum wage jobs to win! Expect […]
By: Diane Benjamin Renner was on WJBC this morning: https://audioboom.com/boos/4550788-tari-renner-bloomington-mayor-5-11-16?t=0 Update: I think the interview has been moved – try this link: https://audioboom.com/boos/4551685-tari-renner-bloomington-mayor-5-11-16?t=0 He REALLY hates video gaming because the machine owners are making way too much money. He actually mentioned a guy who told him he invested $1 million in his business, Renner calculated […]
By: Diane Benjamin State Farm isn’t growing here. Formally local jobs now exists in other states. Send Mike Madigan a thank-you card. A recent report rated all 50 States from Best to Worst for business. See this story: http://chiefexecutive.net/2016-best-and-worst-states-for-business-full-list/ Celebrate now – Illinois is number 48. Businesses and jobs will never return to Illinois as […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari Renner was quoted in today’s paper: “No tax dollars that we’re currently getting will go to this project”. Judy Markowitz said the same thing about the Coliseum. She hired consultants – they were WAY OFF projections: https://blnnews.com/2016/02/11/the-tale-of-the-coliseum-tari-a-hotel/ Tari, please explain where the money to pay SB Friedman to consult came from? […]
By: Diane Benjamin It’s no secret that Bloomington’s Mayor and many past ones think government creates Quality of Life. Therefore, they get to decide what that means – you pay for it. YOU don’t have the freedom to create your own quality of life with your money. Government knows better than you. I seem to […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Pantagraph has a long history of “floating” ideas fed to them from local government. It’s always the first step in making happen what government wants to happen. Watchdogs they aren’t. The last example was “sharing sales tax” – first mentioned in the paper and expanded since. Sunday more ideas were floated […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=21&parent=9539 The award-winning City Manger monthly reports won’t be winning any more awards of they don’t exist. See the link above, nothing has been posted since January. David Hales doesn’t do these reports. The departments compile the information and hand it to Administration. Administration either: hasn’t put it all in a PDF […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you don’t pay attention to how Normal and Bloomington operate, once they start talking publicly about anything it’s already a done deal. Both Councils are stacked, so Renner and Koos can easily talk them into the latest declared “best practice”. Independent thoughts are too rare matter. Have some lunch. Here’s what […]
by: Diane Benjamin Buy a Condo in the Ensenberger Building! I was looking for something else when I stumbled on some astounding numbers. Below are Condo Sales in the Ensenberger Building. The Property Taxes are from the Assessor’s website. Some properties list the Selling price, some don’t. I looked up the ones without a selling […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington taxpayers have been abused by their government. Government’s job is not to run people’s lives with subsidized business, subsidized economic development, and subsidized entertainment. Taxpayers get to pay for “Quality of Life” as defined by government, it has no resemblance to what most citizens pick as “quality”. Tari Renner has […]
By: Diane Benjamin Mayor Renner has claimed many times downtown development won’t cost taxpayers a cent up front. Monday the consultant gets a check however. See the 3/28/2016 Bills and Payroll http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=242&parent=9535 It isn’t a cent – it’s $41,625.75 Page 91: More Payments: $25,000 to Chicago Title for the land purchased on Main Street earlier […]
By: Diane Benjamin Repeat lies often enough and either some people will believe them – or somebody might check the facts! Let’s check some facts! David Hales and the Coliseum management like to spout economic impact numbers. If accurate, the City should be swimming in all the new revenue created by the amazing gift thrust […]
By: Diane Benjamin Today’s story: Chamber of Commerce declares “There Are Jobs Out There”. Sure. Fast food, retail, and jobs with 10 years experience required doing things nobody has every heard of. The average family income isn’t dropping because opportunities abound! http://blnnews.com/2016/03/14/bloomington-what-citizens-need-to-know/ McLean County – Median household income 2014: $60,460 2000: $67,873 Percent change: -11% […]
By: Diane Benjamin The below is from the actual information the City of Bloomington submitted to the State of Illinois: http://tinyurl.com/hja4y6k When spending is $22 million more than revenue, of course they have to steal more! This is for the year ended April 30, 2015. It takes them a LONG time to release the information. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Illinois Comptroller, Leslie Munger, posted this video on Facebook recently. I guess she assumes everybody is on Facebook, if you can’t see it and aren’t on Facebook, that’s why. It’s a devastating look at Illinois finances. Bloomington is right behind Illinois now. Buying votes with projects citizens don’t want, control development, and […]
By: Diane Benjamin As Bloomington decides to blanket the City with TIF Districts, let’s look at the Town of Normal. They have FIVE! First a little review. TIF’s create money for the City without any over-site. The City Council will never be asked where to spend this money – it’s comes from keeping taxes generated […]
