By: Diane Benjamin At the end of Normal’s meeting last Monday Pam Reece and Brian Day weighed in on Stan Nord’s mention of the recent Illinois Supreme court ruling on use of gas taxes. Pam Reece is willing to sit down with anyone for details on how gas taxes are spent. (anybody willing?) Brian Day […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington reports monthly to the Council and citizens on financial trends. We all can see exactly how much money has been collected for various taxes. Normal doesn’t! Normal dumps all tax revenue in the General Fund, including Local Motor Fuel Tax. Pay attention Kevin McCarthy, you obviously missed City Manager Pam Reece […]
By: Diane Benjamin A friend was recently in the Quad Cities. The Iowa side had long lines at the pumps with Illinois plates. https://wirepoints.org/this-weekend-try-to-fill-your-gas-tank-anywhere-but-illinois-wirepoints/#respond Besides the State Sales Tax (6.25%) and State Motor Fuel Tax (.39) and Federal Gas Tax (.19), both Bloomington and Normal added .08 in local motor fuel taxes. https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/75413201/ Any surprise […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’m just going to pick a couple items to write about. Item one is a check written to CIRBN for $256,985.34. Listen to Pam Reece describe this payment at 14:15. It sure sounds to me like the Town of Normal is refunding the contributions made by CIRBN for their 3 employees who […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember around a decade ago when taxes you already paid funded garbage service? The City of Bloomington put trash in an enterprise fund and gradually raised your fees to cover the cost. All the taxes you used to pay for garbage have been swallowed by the bureaucracy. Meanwhile the Coliseum is an […]
By: Dine Benjamin Start with this chart that recaps actual and projected tax receipts in the current budget: PDF page 120 https://www.cityblm.org/home/showdocument?id=22149 The Local Motor Fuel Tax didn’t exist before Tari. Since doubling the tax, the City expects to collect $4,630,000 this year. The Amusement Tax didn’t exist before Tari. The City expects to collect […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council spent around 45 minutes discussing the language for the new Concrete and Asphalt Fund which obviously didn’t mean ONLY concrete and asphalt. See this story for more background: https://blnnews.com/2019/04/06/bloomington-moday-agenda/ Even though City Manager Tim Gleason claimed “concrete and asphalt” around 1:01:00 the ordinance still had infrastructure wording – […]
By: Diane Benjamin (I’m not having a good day and tomorrow won’t be any better!) Water Rate documentation for tonight: PDF page 72: http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3230 Back when Normal wasn’t afraid of transparency, they posted the history of rates citizens pay for essential services. Luckily, I copied them: https://blnnews.com/2012/05/30/normal-il-what-is-up-with-the-debt/ Water rates in 2009 were: $4.95 per 1000 […]
By: Diane Benjamin What a scam! Unless the citizens of Bloomington are willing to pay more to fix the roads they aren’t going to get fixed! Tim Gleason is so cute the way he talks about tax increases. He claims he isn’t making recommendations, he’s just throwing numbers out for them to consider. Here the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Order your electric vehicle from Rivian yet? Do you drive an electric vehicle? See this article: https://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/taxing-the-poor-to-pay-for-your-electric-car?fbclid=IwAR0oVqcC6_ltCO7ccJgyVJQyhE_Ez2I5sGD0w8YtL86IUZn5DAOVz6xgEfw People who own electric vehicles have higher than average incomes. They also own a second car for traveling. Of course the manufacturers get taxpayers subsidies to build them. Buyers get tax subsidies to purchase […]
By: Diane Benjamin The current .04 a gallon Motor Fuel Tax was passed on April 21, 2014. http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=6667 The documentation for this meeting claimed it would generate around $1 Million for transportation infrastructure: (PDF page 25) http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=6644 ____________________________ The very next year $2,400,000 was budgeted as expected receipts: PDF page 38 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=9706 Was the Council […]
By: Diane Benjamin http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15932 Now for the meat of tonight’s Bloomington City Council meeting! Finally we have arrived at the tax increases. Solid Waste – AGAIN! PDF page 130 The Council will get a choice – all of them cost you more: Ordinance 1: “High Service Level, High Fee Increases” Ordinance 2: “Medium Service Level, […]
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