Unit 5 is paying the 6% to encourage employees to retire. To qualify teacher’s have to be eligible under the Teacher’s Retirement System rules and have 10 years working for Unit 5. Remember when there was a teacher’s shortage? It’s brilliant to encourage experienced teachers to retire. I still have no explanation for all the […]
By: Diane Benjamin 1) For the first time I can remember, the Ecology Action Center has recommended opting out of electric aggregation because you will be paying more if you don’t. This applies to Bloomington and Normal. https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2026-05-27/ecology-action-center-recommends-opting-out-of-electricity-aggregation-this-year I don’t know if it is too late to opt out, see this Bloomington link: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/community/municipal-electric-aggregation Normal: […]
By: Diane Benjamin From Bills and Payroll: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/32515/639124583137330000 Another spiked pension taxpayers have to cover: Why did Bloomington buy a lot? Tonight’s Agenda: https://bloomingtonil.portal.civicclerk.com/event/4115/files/agenda/12646 The Welcoming America Committee is being discontinued and absorbed by Human Resources. Failures to consistently have a quorum at meetings is blamed. The Empire TIF Fund needs $500,000 to pay the […]
By: Diane Benjamin 1) City of Bloomington has been doing a lot of surveys. The results are dependents on who completes the survey. In the past, surveys had low participation and therefore did not reflect real citizen values. Remember Bring It On Bloomington? https://blnnews.com/2016/10/13/bloomingtons-award-good/ If you live in Bloomington, this is the link: https://engage.thinkconfluence.com/miller-park-plan 2) […]
By: Diane Benjamin This payment was approved at last Monday’s Bloomington City Council meeting: If you still don’t understand what Accelerated IMRF Payments are: SOME Bloomington employees are still allowed to SPIKE their pensions. Sick Days (possibly others too) are accumulated and then the employee is compensated for unused days when they retire. That compensation […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/32213 Some city employees are still spiking pensions. They rack up leave/sick days, cash out a lump sum at retirement, and use it to substantially boost their pensions. State law changed in 2012 to let IMRF (Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund) bill local governments for those spiked pensions—ones the governments never funded extra […]
https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/article_9f59f645-6340-4756-8110-655dd4f6eeeb.html?utm_source=illinois.thecentersquare.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rss_first_item_title Can anyone say after 17 years this isn’t on purpose? Excerpts: U.S. Census Bureau data showing Illinois has lost around 420,000 residents since 2020. Recent polling found almost half of all voters insist they would leave the state if they had the chance. Updated annual Census estimates for Illinois and other states are expected […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Town used the same tax scam recapped in the previous story: https://blnnews.com/2025/11/20/property-tax-scams/ WGLT gladly played along: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-11-18/normal-town-council-discusses-2025-tax-levy-during-sometimes-tense-meeting . That $280,000 home isn’t $280,000 now. Your Town of Normal property tax bill will increase MORE than $48. It would have been nice if Trustee Preston had mentioned that, he didn’t. Worse, they […]
By: Diane Benjamin A non-profit called Truth In Accounting rated every state in a report called Financial State of the States: Top and bottom states: . Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Missouri all received a “B” rating. Illinois got an “F”. A “B” rating means those states have a budget surplus. An “F” means an unbalanced […]
By: Diane Benjamin Locally we still haven’t been told when the airport is going to start taxing the county. If you forgot, Democrats got that passed in Springfield with members that don’t represent rural McLean County. That used to be called Taxation Without Representation. Assessed values are about to go up again. Since the area […]
By: Diane Benjamin Additional information on this story: https://blnnews.com/2025/07/07/is-terri-ryburn-still-living-at-spragues/ From Open The Books Note: These numbers are MONTHLY.
By: Diane Benjamin Previous stories: 2/26/24: https://blnnews.com/2024/02/26/guess-who-is-still-spiking-pensions/ 1/28/21: https://blnnews.com/2021/01/28/how-much-was-wasted-allowing-employees-to-spike-pensions/ 10/19/17: https://blnnews.com/2017/10/19/blatant-taxpayer-abuse/ I sent a FOIA request to IMRF on April 28, 2025 after receiving a tip. Normally IMRF is very prompt, this time they weren’t. I even sent a Past Due notice to them on May 8, 2025 and got no response. I received the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below is why judges should NEVER be retained. They end up thinking they are gods. Trump was elected to get criminal illegals out of the country. Obstructing the President’s performance of his duties deserves justice. Remember when states wanted to deport illegals and the Supreme Court told them immigration enforcement was the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Anyone think schools are pushing too hard for the 1% Sales Tax increase? https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-03-05/retired-educator-barry-reilly-leads-campaign-to-support-sales-tax-for-mclean-county-schools Former District 87 superintendent Barry Reilly is heading a committee to convince you to agree to higher taxes. You need to know Reilly is collecting a HUGE MONTHLY pension: https://www.openthebooks.com/members/employer-detail/?Id=70989&tab=2&F_Name_P=Reilly&Year_P=0 He is collecting more than $205,000 a year […]
See #2. Sharon Chung thinks Illinois corruption is over. She’s funny: https://www.nprillinois.org/illinois/2025-02-13/central-illinois-lawmakers-react-to-former-house-speaker-madigans-guilty-verdict By: Diane Benjamin 1) Continuation of this story: https://blnnews.com/2025/02/13/unit-5-staff-only-meetings-1-sales-tax/ Video of the “staff only” meetings concerning the 1% Salters Tax increase will not exist. I received the response below to that part of a FOIA request: Diane, There are no public records responsive […]
By: Diane Benjamin Try not to laugh while reading this. After all Krystle Able is an elected Democrat on the McLean County Board. She also wants to be Normal’s Township Supervisor earning close to $90,000 a year before benefits if she’s elected April 1st. She posted this on Facebook. If she didn’t want people to […]
By: Diane Benjamin This slide is on the Unit 5 video from last night: See 3:33:59 https://vimeo.com/event/4378038 . What they are trying to say is the RATE of increase has slowed down while making it look like the actual increase isn’t happening. This slide is at 3:39:37 . The EAV growth amounts to an increase […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you haven’t been keeping track of all the layoffs and plant closures in Illinois, you should: https://www.illinoisworknet.com/LayoffRecovery/Pages/IllinoisWARNData.aspx So far in November there have been 259 people affected. October has 1,654. Almost 2000 people and their families won’t have a Merry Christmas this year. Illinois has a high unemployment rate – look […]
By: Diane Benjamin Just living in Illinois means citizens are required to fund pension without asking any questions. You should at least know how the funds are performing. Normal’s last year wasn’t great. These numbers are as of 3/31/2024 which is Normal’s year end. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF) will require higher contributions since it […]
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 OpenTheBooks.com has a wonderful new feature for seeing how your money is spent. It’s called BENJAMIN chatbox. It isn’t named after me, it’s named after Benjamin Franklin. Click this link and look in the lower right corner: https://www.openthebooks.com/ You can search salaries, pensions, and vendor payments for anyone who gets tax dollars. […]
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: […]
