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 Just re-elected Normal Trustee Scott Preston has announced he wants to dump Normal for a higher office: He doesn’t live in the District now: Preston didn’t bother to tell voters last April he wasn’t planning on staying around if he wins. Worse, Preston claims to be a Republican while voting at least […]
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 I’ve written before about Trustee Karyn Smith stating at a Council meeting and in emails the Town of Normal has close to 450 miles of roads. She even compared it to driving to Cairo Il and back. Actually it’s 289 miles to Cairo, so that example is an exaggeration. Round trip would […]
By: Diane Benjamin BlnNews.com now has a ton of history – all the way back to early 2012. Here’s a nugget you might have forgotten: Bloomington didn’t have a gas tax until 2014. They didn’t have an Amusement Tax either. Fazzini and Fruin voted for for both. The gas tax only meant nothing had to […]
By: Diane Benjamin When you vote for progressives your taxes will go up. Utopia takes cold hard cash – YOURS. During the Work Session at 6:00 pm last night the only topic was increasing the gas tax. The theme at this meeting and the 7:00 meeting was “pots” of money. Think about how you handle […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3733 Before the 7:00 meeting the Council is holding a Work Session. At 6:00 they will discuss raising the gas tax. The Town wants more money for Connect Transit, a service most will never use and those that need it no longer can. Expect other items, the “professional staff” and Koos need […]
By: Diane Benjamin 43 Illinois House members claim to be Republican. http://www.ilhousegop.org/members Obviously few Illinois Republicans are also Conservative. The votes below prove why the Republicans are in the minority in Illinois and probably always will be. Many Republicans voted with Democrats to steal more money from you. Living within your means and pensions reform […]
By: Diane Benjamin Today the Pantagraph printed a Letter to the Editor submitted by Roger Hellman. I’m purposely using his name. Although he doesn’t say what kind of gun legislation he wants to see, it’s obvious he would be delighted if every gun was confiscated. See it HERE Is the Pantagraph this clueless? Roger thinks […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Agenda for Monday’s City Council meeting was posted at 4:39. The Pantagraph could at least pretend they read the agenda and then asked Tim Gleason for comments. They didn’t. The Pantagraph posted a story at least 20 minutes before the City bother to fill in the public. Obviously the Pantagraph colluded with […]
By: Diane Benjamin Spending priorities at the City of Bloomington have ZERO to do with what citizens expect them to fund: Police, Fire, Water, Sewer, Storm Water, Roads. If they could get by with taxing you for calling 911 they would. The City of Bloomington created Enterprise Funds to make it easier to take more […]
By: Diane Benjamin Taxing Tari has mentioned more than once that Tim Gleason has some “creative financing” ideas. This morning I think I figured out their game – at least part of it. We know they want to double the gas tax. We also know the entire amount raised won’t be spent on roads – […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council held a Committee of the Whole meeting last night. Scott Black was absent this time, David Sage and Diana Hauman were absent at the last meeting. Getting the whole gang to show up must be difficult. Part of the meeting was dedicated to next years budget. As as […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember former Bloomington Alderman Rob Fazzini? You might remember him from his attempt to create Super Aldermen who represent the whole City, or you might remember his plan to turn the garbage into jet fuel, or maybe his statement that gas taxes don’t necessarily raise the price of gas. Since I heard […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tari Renner was much more demure at last night’s Bloomington City Council meeting. As history shows, his new non-confrontational attitude is temporary. It looks like spending $10,000,000 on an aquatics center is dead. Several aldermen have a new-found respect for declining revenue, especially David Sage. Of course, he works at State Farm […]
By: Diane Benjamin If I hadn’t been out of town this weekend, I would have written A LOT more on the Pantagraph story that attempted to make you believe the Bloomington roads are getting better. It’s really difficult to compose story on a cell phone, so I left a lot of details to readers: https://blnnews.com/2017/09/24/more-pantagraph-conspires-with-city/ […]
By: Diane Benjamin Mayor Transparency wants his Budget Tax Force to report to the Council in September. Gee Mayor, how are they putting everything on the table when nothing is on the table yet? The audited financial statements for the Coliseum, which will show a much bigger loss than previously reported, won’t be out until […]
I remember buzzing around a Council meeting and hearing former Alderman Rob Fazzini say “A gas tax won’t raise the price of gas”. I remember hearing Fazzini was behind the Paradigm fiasco to charge Bloomington and Normal more to haul off garbage so he could turn it into jet fuel. Now I hear Fazzini was advising […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tell your boss you need a raise. The Town of Normal doesn’t have enough money because the revenue they anticipated from taxes is lagging behind projections. Therefore, they have to take more of your money. A new gas tax and higher garbage fees coming. Government can’t be expected to subsidize essential services […]
August 1st Bloomington will start charging a FOUR more cents per gallon gas tax. Normal will probably pass it soon since the two towns have a non-compete agreement. Meanwhile, gas prices are rising and rising and will soon be un-affordable – that whole mid-east war stuff. Our country isn’t allowed to drill or build new refineries, […]
Sorry – you get a 2 month reprieve. Gas will go up August 1st! . by: Diane Benjamin Good for the local paper to put gas prices on the front page. During the Bush administration reporters camped at gas pumps to hear sob stories from citizens when the price got to $3.00 a gallon – […]
