By: Diane Benjamin This property was randomly picked and is the same one from previous stories: https://blnnews.com/2026/04/30/congrats-how-much-is-stolen-from-you-is-posted/ The Bloomington house increases are in this story: https://blnnews.com/2026/05/01/taxing-bodies-in-bloomington-increases/ Total taxes paid in 2025 vrs 2026: . Congrats go to the Normal voters who fell for the “property taxes will go down” if you vote for a 1% […]
By: Diane Benjamin The below is from the Unit 5 agenda last Wednesday: https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Agenda/1482?meeting=722323 The Board held a Public Hearing on property taxes. This slide was included: . The highlighted number is what they plan on taking from property owners. We know the increase Equalized Assessed Values are mostly due to higher values assigned to […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington voted in July to suspend payments to the County for the Behavioral Health Action Plan starting July 1, 2025: Shared Sales Tax suspended Why is this payment listed on Bills and Payroll if payments are suspended? Bills and Payroll 12-15-2025 I’d ask but getting an answer is evidently […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Agenda/1482?meeting=702240 . Remember when they promised to use 33% of the new Sales Tax Revenue to reduce property taxes? https://meetings.boardbook.org/Documents/WebViewer/1482?file=094c40a2-40b3-4c72-913f-21da99d1f3c1
By: Diane Benjamin Board candidate Casey Misch reported he was the only person running April 1st to actually attend the Tri-Valley Board meeting last night. Yes your property taxes got a massive increase because they can. Meetings aren’t on video and few people stand up to the Tax Class. You will get your property tax […]
By: Diane Benjamin Read this story: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2024-11-18/tri-valley-district-will-have-contested-school-board-races?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook Excerpt: Maybe this Ben: https://blnnews.com/2024/09/20/tri-valley-incident/ Numerous kids report they saw a gun. The way this incident was handled had 6 parents speak at the September Board meeting according to the minutes. Other parents present didn’t speak. Maybe transparency is a better option than Mouser’s “don’t tell your parents”? […]
By: Diane Benjamin PDF page 3: https://www.normalil.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/4825 Normal is required to hold a Public Hearing. The norm is nobody shows up to speak. Thus citizens get the government they deserve: After a few to none show up to protest this fleece, the Council will vote to approve taking more of your money.
By: Diane Benjamin If you thought Unit 5 was bad, wait for the City of Bloomington! They are projecting ending the year with $51 million in reserves. Inflation has been devastating to citizens, credit card debt is record high. Government is fine, you aren’t. If Tim Gleason didn’t have the votes for this it wouldn’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin Don’t fall for “the rate is slightly lower”. Your assessed value is MUCH higher making a lower rate obvious. Can you afford another 8.66% added to what you already pay? Planning to show up? The room is small – force them to move to a larger space. When is enough enough? If […]
By: Diane Benjamin City Manager Tim Gleason announced at last night’s meeting that next week’s Committee of the Whole is being turning into a special meeting to talk property taxes. He of course used the obligatory fallacy that the City portion of your tax bill is small, it’s the school districts that get the most […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Agenda/1482?meeting=559216 The Unit 5 School Board will be raising your taxes over 5%, how much over isn’t in the tax documentation. A Public Hearing is being held before the vote, of course very few of you will show up and tell them what you think. You voted down the referendum so they […]
By: Diane Benjamin Julie Emig was absent again. Proving Covid is now no big deal, Tim Gleason attended by zoom from the other side of the wall. He stated he had direct exposure to Covid and didn’t want to sit next to other council members and possibly expose them. Remember when people were required to […]
by: Diane Benjamin Ward 4 Alderman Julie Emig was on sick leave until the end of November. She still wasn’t back Monday night. She hasn’t attended a meeting since September, her Ward has been un-represented for over 2 months. It’s funny to watch the Council continue to conduct business with 8 alderman instead of 9. […]
By: Diane Benjamin I hope you know there is NEVER enough money for government. It is very easy to take more from you instead of doing without like those paying their bills do. By not showing up you tell them you don’t care. Rent? Property taxes are included in your rent. Expect increases. . . […]
By: Diane Benjamin I looked at the City website last night and no agenda was posted for the “special meeting”. It did announce the Committee of the Whole meeting was cancelled. No wonder nobody showed up for Public Comment! The “Special Meeting” agenda is posted now. Meetings that just happened are erased only to reappear […]
Next Wednesday Unit 5 will vote to put a referendum on the November ballot to raise property taxes. Taxes on a home valued at $180,000 will increase $500 a year. Nothing in the WOKE curriculum is being cut. Next April voters can elect non-teachers union backed School Board members. If this doesn’t pass in November, […]
By: Diane Benjamin Unit 5 has a superintendent that uses PRONOUNS! Proof: https://blnnews.com/2021/08/27/the-winning-email/ If that doesn’t tell you your kids are going to a leftist indoctrination camp, maybe this will help. Unit 5 is all in on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Stop and read this article: https://thefederalist.com/2022/01/10/500-school-districts-publicly-declare-only-woke-teachers-need-apply/ Is “woke” Weikle only hiring woke teachers? Would […]
By: Diane Benjamin Unit 5 didn’t have many attend their 2nd round of Community Engagement sessions last night. They really want to put a property tax increase on the ballot in November. They need attendees to get yes votes. From a person who did attend, video is not available: Kristen Weikle lamented unfunded mandates. They […]
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 At the Bloomington City Council meeting last night Jeanne Hamilton announced the State had given them a grant of over $5.6 million for the expansion. Of course, they won’t be using all of it to decrease the property tax increase. See 4:15. I might have lost track, but I counted 13 comments […]
By: Diane Benjamin Your property taxes were raised last night with the consent of the two Republicans on the Normal Town Council. The rate was kept the same (for now) but with rising property values the Town will collect over $300,000 more than last year. The vote last night was sold as “statutory”, another vote […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last week I was at the Tri-Valley High School. They recently finished a renovation that included a new library. I was shocked to see what was missing: BOOKS. The library had some books but not shelf-covered walls normally associated with a library. My tour guide told me the kids don’t read books […]
By: Diane Benjamin The worst part of the Council raising your property taxes last night is they did it for no good reason. They might need the money in the future, so 3% it is. You lucked out, it could have been an increase of 5%. I attended the Danvers Council meeting last night with […]
By: Diane Benjamin This WGLT article is pretty accurate in describing the contentious all day Council meeting Friday. https://www.wglt.org/Normal-Town-Council-Works-Through-Trust-Issues-Contentious-Retreat The bottom line is the elites on the Council don’t appreciate Stan Nord and Karyn Smith actually doing what they campaigned to do! (sound familiar?) Isn’t that what voters expect politicians to do? (How many actually […]
By: Diane Benjamin PDF page 50: https://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3446 Normal under this Council is not capable of living within their means. I bet you didn’t know about this two day meeting of the council with Lyle Sumek: Sumek is the guy really running Normal. I bet this meeting isn’t going as well as last year’s! Celebrate they […]
By: Diane Benjamin Questions for the Council: Last November you held a retreat. EVERY program the City is forcing people to pay for was presented. See PDF page 34 and following: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=14932 There are 15 pages of programs ranked from HIGH priority to Low priority. It looks like cutting programs died the day they were […]
By: Diane Benjamin The citizens of Normal need to understand they do not have accountable representatives on the Town Council. Since Normal does not have a WARD system, all trustees are elected “at-large” and therefore do not have to represent you. Trustees McCarthy, Cummings, and Preston were elected with between 3012 and 3668 votes last […]
By: Diane Benjamin It looks like Bloomington has to be destroyed by government spending before people realize local elections matter. Or, maybe only the people who can’t move will be left paying the bills which are about to get much bigger. Monday night the Bloomington will see the results of doing “Wants” before Needs. MANY […]
By: Diane Benjamin White Oak Township met to raise taxes last night. They voted by referendum because the Township needs more money. The Agenda lists the increase “not to exceed” .167%: The reason given for the tax increase is: Wind farm revenue is decreasing! The State is also late paying Motor Fuel Tax. Not surprising, […]
