Most of us show up to vote in presidential years, and that’s good. But too many of us sit out the elections that actually decide who runs McLean County day-to-day: the primaries and the spring local elections for county board, sheriff, circuit clerk, coroner, regional school board, township officials, and even the judges who will […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below is the playbook the far left uses to win elections. Show up everywhere, act like you are everybody’s best friend, pretend being elected isn’t about obtaining power, and saying whatever you have to for votes. See Abby Scott: https://blnnews.com/2025/11/25/bloomington-%f0%9f%a4%a6%e2%99%80%ef%b8%8f/ Of course Abby and her husband Corey Beirne are friends of Krystle’s. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Since October numbers weren’t available when I did this story: https://blnnews.com/2025/11/24/before-bloomington-raises-property-taxes-ask-them-to-explain-this/ Let’s look at them! In that story, for 5 months, Bloomington had already collected $2,434,698 more than in 2024. Half way through the fiscal year, they are already over $3 million more. . Your property taxes and grocery tax HAD to […]
By: Diane Benjamin Next May Bloomington water bills go up to make the trifecta of 100% increase in 3 years complete. All other fees go up 3% every year without a vote. Your property tax bills, courtesy of the City and Library, are also going up. There was an election in April of 2025. Cody […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington Library didn’t get the memo. A $200,000 house last year isn’t assessed at $200,000 this years. They expect you to believe your library tax is going down: . The City of Bloomington was smart enough not to pull that scam: https://blnnews.com/2025/11/22/bloomington-flunked-the-transparency-test/ The City claims that $200,000 house last year is […]
By: Diane Benjamin If corporations kept 2 sets of books, the leaders would be in jail. Bloomington is doing that: https://blnnews.com/2025/11/22/bloomington-flunked-the-transparency-test/ Did you know Bloomington is only paying interest in the Coliseum bonds? If it ever gets paid off the real cost will likely be close to twice what the original cost was. 1 year […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember this post with REAL profit from a show at the BCPA? The show was Adam Wainwright. The event report originally displayed was posted by mistake. That event report actually showed how much he got paid to appear and therefore the TRUE profit. Now go to this page to see the “revised” […]
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 If you own a house you are renting it from all those taxing bodies on your bill. If you don’t pay the bill it will be stolen from you. Scams abound this time of year because all of them are raising your taxes. More than once I’ve heard “the owner of a […]
By: Diane Benjamin Once again it’s time for every unit of local government to raise your property taxes. You will hear the average homeowner will only pay X more a year. Look at your property tax bill from last year. How many units of government are listed? Each one of them wants more money, not […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below is part of what Able posted on Facebook. It recaps her rise to “power”. Note, nowhere does she talk about policies that got votes, she just showed up. . That last paragraph shows her politics is about POWER. Did she tell the Normal Township voters she would be keeping her first […]
By: Diane Benjamin This is the article that needs some work: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-10-30/new-report-cards-show-fewer-exemplary-b-n-schools-and-more-with-struggling-student-groups The “new report cards” are based on results from LAST SCHOOL YEAR. The article fails to mention that fact, reading it makes it sound like the information is current. Results from kids now in school won’t be known until the kids are tested […]
By: Diane Benjamin WGLT story: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-10-08/normal-looks-to-create-new-uptown-tif-to-spur-development?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook 2024 Downtown Development TIF report: https://files.illinoiscomptroller.gov/LocGovTIF/FY2024/06409531/24TIF06409531Downtown_volpment_1.pdf PDF page 8 shows this TIF is underwater: ($47,720,848) Normal taxpayers are on the hook for expenses the TIF didn’t generate enough revenue to pay. Now Normal wants a new Uptown TIF and claims to have developers interested. The WGLT story did an […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Agenda/1482?meeting=702240 . Remember when they promised to use 33% of the new Sales Tax Revenue to reduce property taxes? https://meetings.boardbook.org/Documents/WebViewer/1482?file=094c40a2-40b3-4c72-913f-21da99d1f3c1
By: Diane Benjamin Go to the bottom of this page: https://mcleancountyil.gov/109/Filing-an-Assessment-Complaint I believe the State of Illinois is behind raising local assessed values. In their brilliance they thought McLean County properties were undervalued. When you see numbers like 1.0918 it means your assessed value is going up 9.18%. I explained in this story how property […]
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 Evidently the media wasn’t listening to public comment at the 7/14/25 County Executive Board meeting. Former Board member Susan Schafer was heavily involved with the mental health funding and spending. She spoke about the expense involved implementing EGIS. It is some replacement 911 system that is going to cost $20 million over […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader I wrote in June about the Olympia property taxes debacle. In this story I quoted their website stating a meeting would be held July 14th (if needed). That link at the bottom no longer works, This is the new link to meeting dates: https://core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/395/district/5796161/24-25_BOARD_OF_ED._MEETINGS-DATES.docx__3_.pdf July 14th (if needed) was […]
Part 1: https://blnnews.com/2025/06/18/olympia-school-district-facts-part-1/ By: Diane Benjamin The Olympia Schools superintendent sent 2 emails about the property tax error: . From Part 1 – enrollment is decreasing. According to this story the District has been deficit spending for a decade: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-05-21/olympia-school-district-frustrated-by-error-that-led-to-incorrect-mclean-county-tax-bills With 110 fewer students since 2018, why do they have deficits? According to Illinois Report […]
Part 2: https://blnnews.com/2025/06/18/olympia-schools-district-facts-part-2/ By: Diane Benjamin This story has facts needed for the NEXT story. If you want the best possible chance of fleecing taxpayers you put a referendum to increase taxes on the Primary ballot where few people bother to vote. The Mclean County schools did that on April 1st to get a 1% […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below are the property taxes assessed on farmland in McLean County. This is a small parcel – 45.63 acres. Also shown is the percentage increase over various 5 year time frames: See this website for historical prices of corn and soybeans: https://www.fcsamerica.com/insurance/resources/crop-price-history Corn: . Soybeans: . One thing is clear: Taxes only […]
By: Diane Benjamin All of the information on local properties was found on the County Property Tax Inquiry website: https://mcleanil.devnetwedge.com/ Tax rates in Bloomington depend on whether the house is in Unit 5 or District 87. All of Normal is Unit 5. Correction to previous versions: . The houses below were chosen to represent various […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve been looking at property tax bills since Friday. The results will be printed tomorrow, I want time to review it one last time. Meanwhile, these two links will give you a preview. Both are also in tomorrow’s story: https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/why-property-tax-illegal https://constructioncoverage.com/research/average-property-tax-by-state-county-city
By: Diane Benjamin 1) Bloomington (and Normal) placed 20th on a list of worst places to live in Illinois for retirees: https://consumergravity.com/worst-towns-retirees-illinois/ Two reasons are listed. Healthcare costs are higher than the national average and you have to travel to get specialized care. The second reason given is Public Transportation that doesn’t fully meet the […]
By: Diane Benjamin See this WGLT article: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-04-24/d87-optimistic-but-acknowledges-challenges-of-banning-cell-phones-at-bhs District 87 is planning to lower their property tax grab by $2 million, which is 1/3 of a revenue estimate they plan to receive from the 1% Sales Tax. Don’t expect your property taxes to go down. Your assessed values will be going up. If District 87 […]
By: Diane Benjamin I heard from a reliable source yesterday Assessed Values will increase another 8-9% this year. Your property taxes will increase even if the 1% sales tax passes. Schools drool over rising property values, as does every taxing body listed on your property tax bill. The assessor will be blamed instead of the […]
By: Diane Benjamin This website recaps how much property values have increased in the last 5 years. https://stacker.com/illinois/bloomingtonil/cities-fastest-growing-home-prices-bloomington-illinois-metro-area-0 The ranking order doesn’t make any sense to me since the link states they are listing cities with the most expensive homes. Most of the local governments listed on your property tax bill had dollar signs dancing […]
By: Diane Benjamin Most local units of government will be on the April 1st ballot. Most of registered voters won’t both to vote. That makes theft easy. How are they stealing your money? By taxing you on unrealized gains through property taxes. The value of your house has increased but you will never see that […]
By: Diane Benjamin The below was sent to City of Bloomington employees by City Manager Jeff Jurgens before the November 18th Council meeting. (Yes I’ve got a stockpile of things I haven’t gotten around to writing about!) Expect “structural deficit” to raise it’s ugly head again. That was Tari Renner’s excuse for raising taxes. Under […]
By: Diane Benjamin While ZERO of Connect transit electric buses are operational, last night Unit 5 bough 5 electric buses and 5 charging stations with $2,076,015 of your money. Austin Texas has 46 electric buses parked. Same manufacturer as Connect’s: https://www.fox7austin.com/news/capmetro-new-electric-buses-shelved Central States isn’t the manufacturer. Usually the Feds hand out grants to buy electric, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Read this story: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2024-11-18/tri-valley-district-will-have-contested-school-board-races?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook Excerpt: Maybe this Ben: https://blnnews.com/2024/09/20/tri-valley-incident/ Numerous kids report they saw a gun. The way this incident was handled had 6 parents speak at the September Board meeting according to the minutes. Other parents present didn’t speak. Maybe transparency is a better option than Mouser’s “don’t tell your parents”? […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington staff wanted to raise your property taxes, the Council complied for the library. They didn’t increase their own share. Maybe a public comment from a guy who stated property taxes are driving him out of his home had an impact. I don’t know if the spelling is correct, but he was […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tonight’s meeting got changed from a Committee of the Whole to a Special Meeting. Besides the below there is a presentation on Community Development Block Grant spending. https://d2kbkoa27fdvtw.cloudfront.net/cityblm/75de54c5ef363097fbab4d251ab6c43a0.pdf Of course funding pensions is the reason (always) for raising property taxes. Government knows they are required to fund the lavish Illinois pensions but […]
By: Diane Benjamin First of all, the Assessor sets property tax rates, not the County Board. . The levy is the total amount the County wants to collect in property taxes. Explain this if the levy was decreased 3.5%. November 14, 2023: PDF page 176 https://www.mcleancountyil.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/9855 November 11, 2024: PDF page 180 https://www.mcleancountyil.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/10531 Isn’t $49 […]
