By: Diane Benjamin Same property as previous stories – picked at random. https://blnnews.com/2026/04/30/congrats-how-much-is-stolen-from-you-is-posted/ For context on the airport tax: Bloomington and Normal properties are still being taxed by the airport — see Central Il Reg Airport Auth. In 2025, it appeared on bills as “BLM-Nrm Airport Auth.” This year’s 2026 in-town bills now show $0.00 […]
By: Diane Benjamin This is the final consultant report. Stories the last few days total the almost $6 million I reported by on March 18th: https://blnnews.com/2026/03/18/paid-consultants-inccrra/ Heartland Community College got $165,408.88 to run a pilot program to train childcare workers. My original FOIA stated Heartland got $169,408, maybe expenses were exceeded. All of the rest […]
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 If you haven’t opted out of electric aggregation in Bloomington and Normal you are paying than than you could have because both councils chose the higher “green energy” rate. At the last County Board meeting they did the same thing. The Board voted 16-3 to pay $41,776 more for “green” electricity than […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below is what was put in staff mailboxes at Colleen Hoose and possibly other Unit 5 schools. It does not have a name other than the Vote Yes symbol used by the Political Action Committee who is trying again to raise your property taxes after failing in November. This is obviously a […]
By: Diane Benjamin The data below was FOIA’d by Doug Fansler from the Town of Normal. Guess who is paying to charge Electric Vehicles? That would be the taxpayers of Normal, State of Illinois (ISU), and Heartland College district taxpayers. Maybe after paying way more for an EV than a gas powered vehicle free electricity […]
By: Diane Benjamin At last night’s Council meeting Chemberly Cummings was wearing a mask because she was sick. She took it off to speak because Chris Koos couldn’t hear her. The plastic dividers were gone, COVID is officially over since 6 feet apart isn’t happening anymore at Normal Council meetings. Start with this short clip […]
By: Diane Benjamin This is a must watch video, it shows what representatives you get when everybody else is too busy to run for office: Jeff wants people who never had slaves to compensate people who never were slaves. His attitude towards blacks makes it sound like they aren’t capable of succeeding because of continuing […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal is taking MLK Day off, the Council meeting is Tuesday night. https://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/4204 Were you invited? Get your gift card? Pam Reece keeps paying the ridiculous rent at 1 Uptown Circle 2 years after the council told her to fix it: Chemberly Cummings continues to feed kids at your expense: Think Normal […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader One thing COVID has revealed is authoritarians adore telling other people how to live while not following the same rules themselves. Pritzker, a high risk to die from COVID himself for being obese, loves locking the State down and masking kids. Illinois is the only state in the Midwest […]
The drill was today. It was a planned drill. They did not have enough buses to transport the entire school. Some students were left behind. If this had been a real emergency would that be your child left behind? Anybody using common sense? Overheard at parents open house last night: A school emergency demanding evacuations […]
By: Diane Benjamin I stumbled onto this page weeks ago: https://keywiki.org/Democratic_Socialists_of_America_Bloomington-Normal It proves you should be worried about sending your kids to college at ISU or Heartland. One of the members of the local Democratic Socialists of America was just elected to the Heartland Board: https://www.heartland.edu/about/trustees.html Supporting Bernie Sanders is all you need to understand […]
By: Diane Benjamin Even though private schools and public schools like Tri-Valley are open for in-person learning, this guy doesn’t think yours should be: Your kids are going to be a year behind much of the country and the world because on-line classes don’t work. Most parents know that! Gavin is teaming up with another […]
Instead of getting exercise walking across campus, today’s kids need a bus to the taxpayer subsidized work out facilities and classrooms. Heartland will only be paying 82 1/2 cents per ride. Sounds like a war on the poor who are forced to pay $1. They will vote on a 6 month extension. https://www.connect-transit.com/documents/SpecialMeetingDecember17.pdf
By: Diane Benjamin One bit of new information: Connect Transit does track transfers even though they aren’t reported anywhere. Mike McCurdy stated transfers aren’t up when he appeared at a Normal Town Council meeting, so I FOIA’d that info per month. I got this: This is one step closer to finding out exactly how many […]
By: Diane Benjamin This story should explain why Tari Renner despises Clarence Thomas. https://blnnews.com/2019/05/25/tari-renner-clarence-thomas-doesnt-act-afro-american/ Thomas is black and successful. Clarence proves being born poor and black in America does not mean you are doomed for life. The same applies to Ben Carson and many other minorities who are living the American Dream because they worked […]
By: Diane Benjamin Two new trustees will be sworn into office at 7:00. They were elected because Chris Koos did not want them on the Council. Stan Nord and Karyn Smith will need the support of citizens to stop this madness! http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3285 Look at this spending. Get the idea government and quasi-government agencies know how […]
By: Diane Benjamin Since Bloomington-Normal is a college town, this is an article that needs to be read. It was printed in Forbes Will Half Of All Colleges Really Close In The Next Decade? Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen consistently turns heads in higher education by predicting that 50% of colleges and universities will close or […]
By: Diane Benjamin Follow up to this story: https://blnnews.com/2018/10/20/the-corn-crib-fleece/ The property ID # in the County system for the Corn Crib was 14-17-400-004. You can look this PIN number up on the County Assessor’s site: http://mcleanil.devnetwedge.com/ Taxes for 2010 were $95,365.40 Taxes for 2011 were $145,019.90 Taxes for 2012 were $32,119.36 Taxes for 2013 were ZERO Heartland […]
By: Diane Benjamin Followup to this story: https://blnnews.com/2018/10/20/the-corn-crib-fleece/ I discovered more information about the Cornbelters. They have two liens placed by the Illinois Department of Employment Security, meaning they didn’t pay the payroll taxes due. From 2016-2017 they owe $24,173.64 including interest, from 2015 they owe $2,054.94 plus interest of $621.87. Source: 2016 and 2017 […]
By: Diane Benjamin I reported in this story Heartland Community College pays the property taxes on the Corn Crib property: https://blnnews.com/2018/10/18/heartland-pays-property-tax-corn-crib/ I’ve been doing lots of research on where the Corn Crib originated. In case you missed the latest news, only college kids will play at the Crib in the future. Minor league baseball is […]
By: Diane Benjamin Even though Heartland Community College is tax exempt, if they own property that isn’t being used for a tax exempt purpose they pay property taxes. Below is the list of properties they paid taxes on for 2017: 14-17-300-013 $132.92 (did not pay taxes prior to 2017) 9.67 acres commercial vacant land http://normaltownship.org//parcelinfo.php?SearchPIN=1417300013 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Budgets for Heartland Community College only go back to 2012 on their website. Below are tuition increases starting in 2012: PDF page 11: https://www.heartland.edu/documents/bo/budgetfy12.pdf Note tuition was increased $16 per credit hour in 2012. 2013: PDF page 11: https://www.heartland.edu/documents/bo/budgetfy13.pdf Since 2012 didn’t mention a “Student Life Fee” and it’s only $1 per credit […]
By: Diane Benjamin According to this article (buried on their website), Heartland Community College is planning on not having a balanced budget until 2021. https://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/education/heartland-board-approves-first-budget-with-deficit/article_a0c39e6e-4dca-5637-b1ba-749dc4cd88b1.html Do you deficit spend for 2 years or more? Government does. The planned deficit is because they lost the authority to levy “equity property taxes” amounting to $3 million. Of […]
By: Diane Benjamin Today the local rag has a story extolling the greatness of the Heartland Turbine. Maybe they got their info from Heartland, maybe they shouldn’t have. Their story says 23,000 Megawatts have been generated – in 5 years. That’s 4,600 MW a year. Now convert that to Kilowatt hours so their story and […]
By: Diane Benjamin No matter where you live, voting Tuesday is essential. Even if you don’t live in Bloomington or Normal – there are OTHER elections to vote in. See complete County list here: http://mcleancountyil.gov/index.aspx?NID=692 I live in Dawson Township. Four years ago out of 447 registered voters, only 75 voted: http://mcleancountyil.gov/DocumentCenter/View/8115 The people elected […]
By: Diane Benjamin UPDATE to this story: https://blnnews.com/2017/01/23/redistributing-your-wealth/ Since WGLT is National Public Radio, your federal tax dollars already fund them. They aren’t allowed to sell advertising, all they can do is “underwritten by” non-specific ads. That doesn’t keep your local tax dollars from ending up in their pocket though. I received this information under […]
By: Diane Benjamin Heartland Community College Board Policy: Board Policy Manual 6-17-15 POST to WEB See page 22. Part of the policy is something some citizens wish other areas of government allowed: The Board may at any time recognize members of the public for purposes of making formal presentations to the Board. Formal presentations shall […]
By: Diane Benjamin Big corporations do two things: Hire people Negotiate taxes Because of an extensive well-funded legal department, corporations weld a lot of power not available to small business. It’s impossible for free market competition to exist when the biggest entities use their money and connections for perks available only to them. Here’s the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Shouldn’t a school, in the business of educating students, have more teachers on staff than any other type of employee? Does Caterpillar have more employees making their products or working in the office? From Heartland Community College website: http://www.heartland.edu/about/facts.html 275 Total Faculty, 598 Total Staff! The number of staff is more than […]
by: Diane Benjamin Original construction costs are in this post: This post will update the information from last year. The turbine was broke for all of October 2013 and March 2014. It was broke for part of September and November 2013 and February 2014. Note the higher Cost per KWH during those months. Looking […]
by: Diane Benjamin In today’s edition, the Pantagraph has a story about the Heartland Community College wind turbine. A study is going to be conducted to see how many birds and bats are murdered by the blades per year. The Canadian Free Press just released information on the subject: http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/print-friendly/63235 CFP frequently reports what American media […]
by: Diane Benjamin I’m sure you’ve received your Real Estate Tax bill by now – did you just look at the total and suppress a growl? If you didn’t read it line by line, pull it out and see what Heartland Community College is costing you. If you remember, Heartland came into existence to provide […]
by: Diane Benjamin Another teachable moment is happening at Heartland. I wonder if the environmental students are learning it. I was contacted by one of the MANY people I rely on for information that the wind turbine at Heartland is out of commission again. It was down last year too. (http://blnnews.com/2013/10/31/the-heartland-wind-turbine-died/) I sent Heartland Community […]
by: Diane Benjamin Date of death: September 18, 2013 Date it may rise from the dead: November 11, 2013 (at least some time that week) The College (taxpayers) will not incur any costs to fix it. This information was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. There is a little more to this story however. […]
by Diane Benjamin Heartland Community College is a public institution funded by taxpayers. They are accountable to taxpayers for how OUR money is spent. Ideology should have NO ROLE in education, but it does at Heartland. The college pushes “Green” technology at any expense and with total disregard to the people paying the bills. See […]
by Diane Benjamin CPA reg. Many factors are not available for analysis of this project. This process must continually be updated when REAL data becomes available. Some of the factors are: Cost per KWH for purchased electricity over the next 20 years – it most likely will not remain constant Amount of electricity generated by […]
