By: Diane Benjamin Remember when Bloomington bought new garbage trucks and cans? Why doesn’t the City know how much money they are saving by automating? How many MILLIONS did that cost, evidently the Council didn’t ask how much would be saved before spending the money and now the City doesn’t know if they are saving money. […]
I have no time to write today, and I won’t be watching the council meeting tonight. You will have to watch the Democrats, I mean the Council, destroy your wallet yourself: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=61 Diane
By: Diane Benjamin From 4/28/14 City Council meeting: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=6699 Item 10 E. Discussion of FY 2016 Budget Priorities. Motion by Alderman Fazzini, seconded by Alderman Stearns to lay this item over until the Council’s May 12, 2014 meeting. The April 28th meeting was where the budget was finally approved with tax increases. Renner promptly started […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below are 2 charts from the budget documents on the City of Bloomington website. Both recap spending just for Administration. The first chart can be found it: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=2016 Page 143 The second chart can be found at: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8224 Page 118 Total Admin spending: 2011 $590,415.95 Actual 2012 $668,452.00 Projected 2013 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Both David Hales and Tari Renner have proclaimed their “Bare Bones” budget is unsustainable. This is code for we can’t raise taxes in an election year. Karen Schmidt and Joni Painter voted for all the tax increases last year, you are supposed to forget. Asking them to vote for more now is […]
By: Diane Benjamin Nothing has been disclosed yet, but I guarantee the proposed budget will increase at least 2%. Tari has mentioned numerous times that costs are up 2%, so in his mind he has no other choice but to increase the budget. Meanwhile, median income per household in the country has been decreasing for […]
By: Diane Benjamin The vile comments made by Tari Renner were posted to this story: http://blnnews.com/2015/02/10/does-tari-know-that-judy-isnt-running/ IWU students have commented at the last two Council meetings. The two took turns attacking Alderwoman Stearns. The obvious question is why since she isn’t running for reelection! Review last year – the answer is clear. Tari is getting […]
By: Diane Benjamin In a further attempt to make your elected Aldermen immaterial, the City of Bloomington is holding a budget meeting on January 20th. Each Alderman is to invite 10 citizens, then these 90 people will tell Bloomington where your money should be spent. Being a Representative Republic is now dead in Bloomington. Thanks […]
by: Diane Benjamin Bloomington owns 3 golf courses. I previously report that these 3 courses DO NOT pay for themselves, even if Mayor Renner likes to say they do: http://blnnews.com/2014/03/29/golf-pays-for-itself-hahaha/ It’s hard to keep track of what is in the budget and what isn’t, but I think the $250,000 for path resurfacing at Prairie Vista […]
by: Diane Benjamin Instead of the Flamingo Budget, it could be called one of the following: “Take a Staff Member to Lunch” budget “Feed the Council Pizza” budget “Pay for Staff to See the County” budget “Renner No Cuts Possible, only more taxes” budget Renner never responded to the food and travel budget cuts Stearns […]
by: Diane Benjamin Let’s get some facts on the table first. Alderwoman Stearns is out of the country Mayor Renner sent her more than one email yesterday inferring her budget numbers were incorrect and not contributing to the discussion Mayor Renner did an interview with Rachel Wells at the Pantagraph conveying the same to her […]
by: Diane Benjamin Below is the survey completed by the alderman showing what cuts and revenue they would support. It was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. It also shows what David Hales and Mayor Renner are thinking. It is difficult to read since each section is on 2 pages, it needs to be […]
by: Diane Benjamin I never understood why Mayor Renner ran to every media outlet blaming the City Council for not proposing their own budget or cuts to the existing budget. The Council hires City Manager David Hales to manage the city. He gets paid A LOT of money while the Council gets less than $6000 […]
by: Diane Benjamin This morning on Cities 92.9 Mayor Renner stated that most of what I write is fiction. Keep it up Mayor! Citizens can see right through your marginalizing of anybody who isn’t 100% behind you. Somebody has to hold you accountable, it obvious the Pantagraph and WJBC won’t do the job. Somebody has […]
by: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council is seriously considering raising your motor fuel tax. They don’t care that not long ago gas was less than $2 a gallon. They don’t care the gas prices are headed back to $4 a gallon again. They don’t care because they DON’T want you to drive. Get on […]
by: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington Budget workshop is happening now. I’ve listened to enough to know where City Manager David Hales and Mayor Tari Renner want to take the city: down the same path of the State of Illinois The general theme of the budget discussion is serving the almost 80,000 citizens of Bloomington. So […]
by: Diane Benjamin It’s easy, but I’ve never heard anybody say it! Since Congress doesn’t have a current budget, it has operated under the 2009 budget. The 2009 budget was the largest in history! Obviously the Democrats have no intention of cutting spending. So, instead of passing the House budgets, or even discussing them, they pass Continuing Resolutions […]
By Jayette Bolinski | Illinois Watchdog http://watchdog.org/57850/il-states-debt-equals-55k-for-every-private-sector-worker-report-says/ SPRINGFIELD — Every private-sector employee in Illinois would have to pony up more than $55,000 each to pay for all of the state’s accrued debt, according to a new analysis. Illinois has $271.1 billion worth of debt, among the worst states in terms of total debt, according to a report […]
by Vic Connor I’ve been spending time going thru the latest 5 Year Budget of Normal. There is an entry for Normal spending about $200,000 for the Route 66 Bike Trail. Since I don’t normally read the Pantagraph I missed the following story. http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/government-and-politics/mclean-co-to-seek-grant-for-route-bike-trail/article_b9bde73c-9eec-11e1-ae0e-001a4bcf887a.html It’s about the State of Illinois picking up 80% of a […]
From Gov Quinn’s E-Newsletter today: Illinois is at a crossroads. After decades of fiscal mismanagement, the time has come to move forward – and we must all work together to put our state on sound fiscal footing. State pensions along with Medicaid place the largest strain on our state budget. The combined stress of these […]
Maybe they just don’t want it in writing:
