By: Diane Benjamin If you aren’t a subscriber to their emails, you should be: Subscribe here Last week the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) released its seminal, annual Rich States, Poor States report, which ranks all 50 states on their economic competitiveness using metrics like total tax burden, labor laws and the cost of debt service. Open […]
By: Diane Benjamin WGLT is not allowed to sell advertising. What did The Town of Normal pay WGLT to do? (2025 data isn’t available yet) https://www.openthebooks.com/search-results/details/?n=Wglt-Normal&e=73583&t=c&burl=%2Fsearch-results%2F%3Ft%3Dc%26F_Name_S%3DWGLT%26F_State%3DIllinois%26F_Year%3D0 . Has WGLT applied for State of Illinois money? If you don’t know about the plan Springfield passed to subsidize media, read up on it: https://dceo.illinois.gov/expandrelocate/incentives/taxassistance/new-journalism-tax-incentive-program.html Yes, non-profit media […]
By: Diane Benjamin More to this story: https://blnnews.com/2026/01/15/is-there-fraud-in-illinois-child-care-spending/ INCCRRA stands for Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. INCCRRA tax return for the year ending 6/30/2024: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/364096312/202530429349300303/full The revenue on this tax return isn’t close to what OpenTheBooks shows they received in calendar year 2024. A tax return for the other NGO, Excelerate Illinois, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Open The Books created a database of “child care” spending by State after the Minnesota fraud came to light: https://open.substack.com/pub/openthebooks/p/minnesota-daycare-scandal-the-power?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email Quote from that story: We’ve created the most comprehensive database of government spending in history, from federal to state and local governments, so that every taxpayer can become a citizen journalist and […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.dhs.state.il.us/2024 Healing Grants 184 organizations across Illinois received grants to engage in racial healing activities: This description is on the grant award: Anti-racism is racism. It requires discrimination in order to promote others who haven’t earned it. My original FOIA was to the Comptroller’s Office. After playing games with extensions for 3 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Anyone think schools are pushing too hard for the 1% Sales Tax increase? https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-03-05/retired-educator-barry-reilly-leads-campaign-to-support-sales-tax-for-mclean-county-schools Former District 87 superintendent Barry Reilly is heading a committee to convince you to agree to higher taxes. You need to know Reilly is collecting a HUGE MONTHLY pension: https://www.openthebooks.com/members/employer-detail/?Id=70989&tab=2&F_Name_P=Reilly&Year_P=0 He is collecting more than $205,000 a year […]
By: Diane Benjamin All of the tools now available to research State and Local spending fascinate me. I’ve been investigating rabbit holes since 6:30 am. I need a break! My eye is now totally healed except for a small bubble the doc put in my eye to hold the repair together. It will dissipate on […]
By: Diane Benjamin 1) The deadline to apply to fill Donna Boelen’s seat was extended until tomorrow. I don’t know if nobody applied or if Mayor. Mboka is looking for better people. If you are in Ward 2 this is an opportunity to represent the Ward without having to campaign. Details here: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/Home/Components/News/News/10275/1394 2) I […]
By John Kraft & Kirk Allen https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/2024/08/adam-andrzejewski-ceo-and-founder-of-open-the-books-passed-away-over-the-weekend/?fbclid=IwY2xjawEwSB1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHb4gzC8E9DAs26VKfclGqu5MgdJy517SSqPVDsyYh22zHhuc3pWRyj_ZOw_aem_SbwKryDxo4FkwoAPmDGMNw On August 19, 2024 Hinsdale, Ill. (ECWd) – With deep sadness, we report that Adam Andrzejewski, CEO and founder of Open The Books – “Every Dime. Online. In Real Time.” passed away over the weekend. As former candidate for Governor of Illinois, Adam campaigned on his vision of Every Dime. […]
By: Diane Benjamin The National League of Cities created a searchable database showing where the Infrastructure Bill money is being spent. Look at Illinois – lots of money went to Public Transportation and electric buses. I wonder how many were bought from the bankrupt Proterra? Keep in mind all this money was printed and increased […]
By: Diane Benjamin See this story for MORE information: https://blnnews.com/2022/03/04/unit-5-enrollment-is-decreasing/ Without Open The Books this data would be very difficult to find! Salary information comes from data reported to pension funds. Checkbook data came from Unit 5. If you haven’t heard, Unit 5 wants you to pay more. Unit 5 needs to toss their Diversity, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last week I received a tip concerning chaos that happened at DAT bar in Lexington. The Lexington police gave me the following this morning: (Don’t quit reading!) Adam Deal, age 38 of Pontiac, IL. Deal was arrested for Aggravated Battery. The McLean County State Attorney’s also charge him with Mob Action. Bond […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal has 136 retired employees collecting a pension. The information below is from OpenTheBooks.com https://www.openthebooks.com/Pension/TownNormal At Monday’s Council meeting Karyn Smith asked the Finance Director how much employees contribute. Police and Fire contribute between 9.8 and 9.9%. Other employees contribute 4.5%. All will also receive Social Security. See the video at […]
By: Diane Benjamin Open the Books has a new interactive map showing the salaries of government employees across the country. I highlighted Bloomington Normal. When you click on the link below you will see 4 “balloons” over BlONO. Make sure you click on all 4, the data is different on each. Want to know why […]
By: Diane Benjamin Citizens need to know why there is no money for government to do their job without constantly raising taxes. Retired employee PENSIONS, in addition to Social Security and Medicare, and spiked pensions are the problem. Below are just some of the Monthly pensions payments retired City employees are currently receiving. Note, it […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last month I wrote about the Federal Government arming local governments. https://blnnews.com/2016/05/12/feds-arming-local-gov/ I included lists of mostly guns that area cities received. Creve Coeur received many more items. Their list included all kinds of unusual items, so that made me wonder what happened to the extensive list. Of course I filed a […]
By: Diane Benjamin NOBODY has done more to force transparency on government than Adam Andrzejewski (An-Gee-eski) and his Open The Books project. If you aren’t on his email list, you need to be! Click here: http://tinyurl.com/OTB-Email-List Open the Books has compiled a summary for every taxing body in the State of Illinois. The entire list […]
By: Diane Benjamin Keep in mind: the country is $18,000,000,000,000 in debt. (Trillion – hard to get that many zeros right!) Big banks aren’t lending money to small businesses. Some banks will lend if the loans are backed by the Small Business Administration, or sometimes the SBA just loans the money themselves. Everybody knows economic […]
