By: Diane Benjamin Remember when Bloomington paid cash for a new ambulance and Normal bought the same but financed it? https://blnnews.com/2021/08/02/purchasing-bloomington-vrs-normal/ Normal claimed their savings could earn more money than the interest on the loan, but they forgot to put in the ordinance that equal cash is REQUIRED to remain in savings for the 10 […]
By: Diane Benjamin WJBC has reported Tari Renner wants to end the moratorium on new video gaming machines: http://www.wjbc.com/2019/07/29/renner-sides-with-businesses-seeking-to-end-bloomingtons-video-gaming-freeze/ I remember when the moratorium was put in place, Tari was outraged that $50 million a year went into the machines. It sounds like he changed his mind. Back in 2016 Tari was on WJBC talking […]
By: Diane Benjamin While the Councils in both Bloomington and Normal cheer Connect Transit as a great community asset – the streets citizens are forced to pay more for are being destroyed. They weren’t built for huge buses. Imagine how much worse the damage would be if more than 3 people were on them! Remember […]
By: Diane Benjamin Agenda and Documentation for Council 3/25/19 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21396 PDF page 33 authorizes $69,467.22 for repairs to the City’s only working Water Tower. Notice how nobody ever mentions the other one in Normal that was built too short? It was only used briefly. Add that to the never used fire station, pensions spiking, Quality […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’m pretty sure the City of Bloomington doesn’t advertise this, but they pay a lot for liability insurance. According to the proposed budget, here’s what it covers: PDF page 194: http://www.cityblm.org/home/showdocument?id=18372 Since Bloomington has refused to fund infrastructure adequately for many years, they should be responsible for any loss you incur […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t Doug Fansler, Normal resident Besides devouring at least $800,000 a month government stole from you to fund it, Connect Transit is destroying infrastructure. The roads weren’t built for huge buses. The roads weren’t built so buses could make right turns, especially if traffic is sitting in the far lane. Remember when a […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington can’t find money anywhere in their budget to fix the roads. They will raise your Motor Fuel Tax though! In the latest example of ridiculous priorities: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/Components/News/News/5867/ The City of Bloomington has completed a comprehensive inventory and assessment of 8,519 trees in parks, trails and public spaces as […]
By: Diane Benjamin Luckily I have a huge network of people who want the truth told. The local media has failed miserably at being government watchdogs. Below is a post that WAS on Tari’s campaign Facebook page from 2013. It has since disappeared. It was sent to me MONTHS ago by a reader who copied […]
By: Diane Benjamin Book 1 of the Bloomington Budget has some conflicting information for proposed spending on roads: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8224 The Motor Fuel Tax receipts from the new tax last year was supposed to be spent on roads. According to this page – only $2,000,000 is in the budget for road repairs (Page 289). Last year $9,330,000 […]
By Diane Benjamin Vasudha Pinnamaraju, Executive Director of the McLean County Regional Planning Commission, made a presentation to the City Council last Monday. The Council is updating their Comprehensive Plan. The presentation was on existing conditions in the City of Bloomington. Some of the data used was from 2010, I doubt it is still valid, […]
