By: Diane Benjamin Everyone but Tim Gleason managed to show at last night. Gleason might have been attending another meeting. Jenna Kearns: Just stay seated during the Pledge of Allegiance. You would look like less of a hypocrite: The upcoming presentation for downtown wasn’t mentioned, supposedly the room in the Government Center will be done. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Population of Bloomington as of 7/1/2022: 78,864 https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/bloomingtoncityillinois/PST045222 Population of Normal as of 7/1/2022: 52,838 (Many ISU kids who don’t stay all year) https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/normaltownillinois,US/PST045222 Bloomington reported 645 Full Time employees to the Comptroller last year (They want many more) https://illinoiscomptroller.gov/constituent-services/local-government/local-government-warehouse/processsearchresults/?DisplayMode=GETAFR&AFRDesiredData=Population,%20EAV,%20and%20Employees&Code=064/025/30&CFY=2022&Menu=Yes&PrintIt=No Normal reported 369 Full Time employees https://illinoiscomptroller.gov/constituent-services/local-government/local-government-warehouse/processsearchresults/?DisplayMode=GETAFR&AFRDesiredData=Population,%20EAV,%20and%20Employees&Code=064/095/31&CFY=2022&Menu=Yes&PrintIt=No Bloomington population is 39.5% bigger […]
By: Diane Benjamin I looked at the City website last night and no agenda was posted for the “special meeting”. It did announce the Committee of the Whole meeting was cancelled. No wonder nobody showed up for Public Comment! The “Special Meeting” agenda is posted now. Meetings that just happened are erased only to reappear […]
By: Diane Benjamin 3 people spoke at Public Comment. The first two complained about noise effecting their homes. Neither was completely coherent, I have no idea what area of the city they were talking about. The third raved about Bloomington 101. The comments start at 3:36 is you want to interpret for me. Another guy […]
By: Diane Benjamin Reforming pensions should be the Constitutional amendment on the November 8th ballot. It isn’t, that is more than enough reason to vote NO on the amendment that is on the ballot. Pension debt keeps rising as it eats at least 25% of the State budget. Fixing pensions isn’t ever a priority! The […]
By Diane Benjamin Remember when we defeated the Progressive Income Tax amendment? Amendment 1 will be on the November ballot, it must be defeated too. This Amendment hands power to government unions that shouldn’t exist at all. They shouldn’t exist because they elect people to negotiate their own contracts. We just get the bills. Amendment […]
By: Diane Benjamin Documentation for Normal Monday night: https://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/4283 Start on PDF page 40. Is Pam Reece going to take another job and relocate if Normal doesn’t give her a raise? Doubtful since her husband is a local lawyer. Since staff prepares the budget, Reece budgeted her own raise: PDF page 41 claims Reece’s salary […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington could have a short meeting tonight: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1163&Inline=True Some highlights: Is anyone going to ask why businesses keep leaving downtown for the East side? Is anyone going to admit the City Core is Veterans Parkway not downtown? Sick Leave Buy Back is still being paid, it just can’t be used to spike […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Democrat Party of Illinois isn’t going to reform pensions with a Constitutional Amendment. Next year they do have a Constitutional Amendment on the ballot to hand unions even more power. https://www.illinoispolicy.org/press-releases/what-is-amendment-1-an-illinois-constitutional-amendment-on-the-ballot-next-november/ If local elected officials across the State demanded a Constitutional Amendment to reform pensions, they would prove they care about […]
By: Diane Benjamin Local property values are rising which means your property taxes will be going up based on the new value of your home. Units of government claiming they are keeping the rate the same as last year want you to believe they aren’t raising your taxes. When you bill comes in the mail […]
By: Diane Benjamin It took a long time for the Bloomington Election Commission to name a new Executive Director, the last one quit in May. I’d still like to know why Tim Mitchell quit suddenly and why it took so long to replace him. Did they have trouble finding a qualified applicant? The new Executive […]
By: Diane Benjamin The below information is from the Illinois Comptroller website: https://tinyurl.com/w25h7sk9 Start with the Total OPEB Liability. In TWO years it increased 42.86%. What is OPEB? Other Post Employment Benefits, in other word promises to retired employees other than a pension. The Town of Normal pays these costs as incurred. Unlike the private […]
By: Diane Benjamin The answer to that question might lie in the Financial Trends and Conditions Reported presented at Tuesday’s Normal Town Council meeting: https://www.normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/19250/2021-Financial-Trend Pensions costs continue to increase and police and fire pension funding level decreased. IMRF is only well funded because they don’t put up with underfunding. (It also covers everybody else […]
By: Diane Benjamin Unit 5 has two unions. One is teachers – UFEA, the other is for professional staff – UFSPA. Both recommended three candidates for the Unit 5 School Board in the April 2021 election. They got two of the three elected: Stan Gozur and Kentrica Coleman. From their websites: http://www.ufspa.org/vote/ In 2023 FOUR […]
By: Diane Benjamin All Illinois government salaries and pensions can be found from this link: https://www.openthebooks.com/illinois/#School%20District Every time a unit of government hires additional staff or provides lavish salaries, the pension costs go up. They know it doesn’t matter because YOU will be forced to pay by law. Your “public servants”. This one is interesting, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Illinois is 49th in pension funding as of 2019. Only New Jersey is worse: https://tinyurl.com/Tax-Foundation-Source It is likely 2020 didn’t change these stats, local pensions aren’t included. Excerpts: Low funding levels are challenging not only because of the large contributions required to make up the debt, but also because they generate less in investment […]
By: Diane Benjamin In case you forgot, the Summit was originally by invitation only from a Trustee or Mayor. After outrage, citizens were allowed to attend but their concerns were kept separate. This is a link to the report Lyle Sumek was paid to produce after the meeting, I hear it was rewritten many times […]
By: Diane Benjamin On April 22nd the Illinois House passed HB 2523 116 to 0. For once every Democrat and every Republican agreed: https://ilga.gov/legislation/votehistory/102/house/10200HB2523_04222021_027000T.pdf What is HB 2523? This bill amends the language in the original bill that created the Police Officers Pension Investment Fund. Remember when pension funds were consolidated to hopefully perform better? […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader I wonder if Kathleen Lorenz thinks this makes the “professional staff” that can’t be questioned look good? That “professional staff” creates the budget, did they skip funding pensions? I wonder what will happen if Stan Nord mentions this at a meeting! I can predict: Link to the Bloomington data: […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader Stay tuned, Normal is next. Wirepoints.org analyzed the pensions funding for 175 Illinois communities. Lots of other information is also included. Bloomington received a “D” rating. The results prove how much government has grown in 19 years and how the increased revenue wasn’t used for essential items like funding […]
By: Diane Benjamin Stan Nord was on Cities 92.9 this morning talking about Mayor Chris Koos attempting to silence him Monday night. Listen at the top of the 8:00 hour: https://www.cities929.com/scott-robbins/ It wouldn’t be possible to locate all of the taxpayer fleeces I’ve written about under Chris Koos, but here’s a few: Normal lost $330,000 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember the Eagles song Desperato? That should be the Chris Koos theme song. He has NOTHING to run on so he is now personally attacking Marc Tiritilli instead of addressing the issues. Chris is a divisive leader because he knows people don’t want the things he wants. Marc Tiritilli is running to […]
By: Diane Benjamin At the WGLT mayoral debate the good leftist host had to bring up systemic racism, that discussion kept him from asking about real issues. You are expected to believe minorities can not succeed because whites won’t let them. Obviously it’s a myth because their are countless successful minorities. Obviously it is a […]
By: Diane Benjamin I could write MANY stories about last night’s Bloomington Council meeting. I might write more, I might not. I didn’t want you to miss this graphic: Every citizen of Normal is in twice as much debt as those who live in Bloomington. That is why the end of the Uptown TIF is […]
By: Diane Benjamin The law was changed in 2012 to require additional contributions to IMRF retirement fund if employees received large payouts that increased their pension at retirement. (accelerated payments) That law was badly needed because cities and employees never contributed to the higher payouts. Since the spiking practice should now be over in Bloomington […]
By: Diane Benjamin Since Chris Koos, Kevin McCarthy, Scott Preston, and Chemberly Cummings want your vote April 6th, does this look like something they would do to get it? The Normal Council held a 9 hour budget session yesterday. Surprise! They aren’t going to raise property taxes this year. Instead they are rearranging money they […]
This is Kiplinger, not some conservative outlet trying to play politics: https://www.kiplinger.com/taxes/state-tax/601614/least-tax-friendly-states-for-middle-class-families?rid=EML-today&rmrecid=2482908579&utm_campaign=20210126-today&utm_medium=email&utm_source=today Before both Bloomington and Normal decide to raise property taxes, and Unit 5 does again – these were the rates: District 87: 5.144810 City of Bloomington: 1.090100 Unit 5: 5.355410 Town of Normal: 1.032630
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve questioned for YEARS why CIRBN employees are considered Town of Normal employees entitled to all the benefits every other employee has. CIRBN is a direct competitor to other internet providers who don’t have that luxury. The Town of Normal has subsidized CIRBN by using their service and paying them to run […]
By: Diane Benjamin Follow-up to this story: https://blnnews.com/2020/12/19/oops-did-i-say-that/ A few people have wondered if the video in that story was taken out of context. If you want the 20 minutes before of ceiling shots, people cleaning their cameras, and others jumping in and out I can post it. The meeting was about to start when […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council is meeting Monday night. The ICE hater s will be out in force because Donna Boelen’s council initiative is on the agenda. The far left doesn’t think laws are material to any conversation. http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1098&Inline=True At last Monday’s meeting the City auditor stated Bloomington is paying more than necessary […]
By: Diane Benjamin Due to Christmas the Bloomington City Council is changing their meeting schedule. They will be meeting tonight. One item on the agenda: It should be riveting to hear discussion of data that is 8 months old. Congrats Bloomington, you aren’t supposed to know any facts in a timely manner. I wonder if […]
By: Diane Benjamin Numerous items Normal citizens need to know: Below is part of an email written by Stan Nord. The yellow is City Manager Pam Reece’s response to his email. Pam does not understand citizens saw Target being looted and the destruction to police vehicles while the police did nothing. They know Mayor Chris […]
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 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 From the Illinois Comptrollers website: https://illinoiscomptroller.gov/financial-data/local-government-division/local-government-data/processsearchresults/?DisplayMode=GETAFR&AFRDesiredData=Indebtedness&Code=064/095/31&CFY=2020&Menu=Yes&PrintIt=No Bond debt and “Other” = $85,752,874 Note: The Town only paid off $2,205,000 the entire year. Keep in mind NO principal is being paid on some of the loans, just interest. They forgot to say what “other” is: (did the same in 2019 and 2018) Pensions […]
by: Diane Benjamin In my opinion voting in September for an election in November is lamebrained, dim-witted, and unintelligent. There will be “October surprises”, the presidential debates don’t even start until next week. The ONLY reason to vote now is to pretend you investigated all the candidates and have determined which ones represent your values. […]
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 […]
See this link: https://wirepoints.org/heres-the-central-misleading-claim-constantly-made-about-the-fair-tax-proposal-quicktake/ Excerpts from the article: Don’t be deceived: The State of Illinois can not live within their means. The Progressive Tax Amendment is just the latest scheme to get more of your money. Instead of reforming un-affordable pensions, they want more of your money. Jobs will be lost and more people will […]
By: Diane Benjamin The mantra of the left is Equality – unless you earn more money than somebody else. Equality is not stealing a higher percentage of income from the people who earned it. A completely FAIR tax is taking the same percent from everyone. The proposed change to the Illinois Constitution to Tax 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 […]
