By: Diane Benjamin https://www.point2homes.com/US/Commercial-For-Sale/IL/Bloomington/Downtown-Bloomington/602604-N-Main/51134568.html The building is owned by downtown supporter Mike Manna. Is he fleeing? One caveat: The taxes listed are on a much lower Assessed Value: $93,787 http://mcleanil.devnetwedge.com/view/RE/21-04-178-016/2017 Multiply that by 3.33 and it is supposedly the value of the building. That would be $281,361. Is the asking price too high or the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and Payroll Monday night: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=17676 Bi-Weekly Overtime! (hours/payment – PDF page 6) Weekly employees Overtime: Two entries for Sick Leave Buy Back. Pension Spiking: More expenses for the Coliseum? They haven’t gotten to the elevator yet. Consultants – Administration How many downtown properties aren’t paying taxes because Bloomington bought them? Maybe […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Town of Normal has to pay into three pension funds: IMRF, Police, and Fire. The funding for IMRF isn’t horrible, Police and Fire are. What does that say about who the Town management and Council respect and who they don’t? I’m sure you remember property taxes being raised year after year […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you are so excited to see what your property taxes will be this year, the bills are now on-line: http://mcleanil.devnetwedge.com/ No surprise they are going up! The only way to fight back is to protest your assessed value. Maybe I will start a side business showing people how. When you look at […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Town of Normal must be feeling heat. Maybe it’s because Chris Koos came REALLY close to getting knocked off by Marc Tiritilli. Maybe it’s because Normal raised property taxes eleven years in a row. Maybe it’s because the only way a building was going to get built across from City Hall […]
By: Diane Benjamin Maybe the citizens of Normal have finally decided enough is enough. 11 citizens (one from Bloomington) spoke against the property tax increase during the public hearing before the Normal Town Council. They came armed with facts which the council later tried to refute. That story will be next. Meanwhile, just hit play […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tonight: Town of Normal 7:00 p.m. Public Hearing on a proposed Property Tax Levy . I expect few citizens will show up to express outrage that their government is not capable of living within their means. The Council and the Mayor are counting on it. This hearing is required because the Town […]
By: Diane Benjamin Chris Koos recently spoke at a “State of McLean County” event. See the newspaper story HERE Koos thinks his job is reducing economic inequity, delivering opportunity, social equity and sustainability. If his claims were true, the Council wouldn’t be set to raise property taxes to fill holes in their budget. Stealing more […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last night Trustees RC McBride and Kevin McCarthy went out of their way to thanks the 5 citizens who spoke at Public Comment. They needed to because 3 out of the 5 were plants. Normal illegally requires citizens who want to speak to sign up hours in advance. That gives Koos and […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Pantagraph reported today the Heartland Board passed an operating budget that is 7.8% higher than last year. The overall budget is 13.4% higher than last year. Heartland approved a huge tax increase last year. When your property tax bill increased – much of it was Heartland! Below are the tax rates […]
Update: FOIA filed. Locust has to do with an ISU land swap from 2015. By: Diane Benjamin The video of last night’s Normal Town Council says it’s 10:23 minutes. The meeting doesn’t start until 6:48, so the actually meeting was less than 4 minutes. See the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLNC0lO-kCBYjaSv4sZ4udZFRwMu8bwYGr&v=3XAyHvlFBKE Start the video around 6 minutes […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember in 2014 when a new soccer complex was proposed? That plan involved relocating the YMCA to south Main where the Great Escape used to be. The new building would be a community center. All the planners needed was a tax increase to fund it. State Farm Bank was owed money on […]
By: Diane Benjamin Tonight on the agenda for the Normal Town Council is reauthorizing the lease of 104 W North Street to Dan Brady for $1 per year and FREE to Rodney Davis. This note is included on PDF page 63: http://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2273 If Normal actually read the law, they might find it is illegal to […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Central Illinois Regional Airport has their new website: CIRA.com Meeting dates, agenda’s, minutes etc can be found under “About the Airport” and then “Airport Authority”. Since I haven’t had time to follow them lately, I clicked on the November minutes and found this under Public Comments: The address is Bloomington. It’s […]
The right video is below! By: Diane Benjamin I enjoy hearing the train whistle load and clear on the Normal Council videos. I guess when you take federal money for a new train station, then decide to put the Town offices and Council chambers above it, they deserve have the meetings interrupted by trains. Three […]
By: Diane Benjamin I hear David Hales and Patti-Lynn Silva will be talking about raising property taxes! This meeting is open to the public. Detroit Drive is off Towanda Barnes Road just north of the theater. I can tell you how they decide your taxes. They need X dollars, they go to the Assessor and […]
By: Diane Benjamin At the last Normal Town Council meeting property taxes were raised. There was the obligatory gnashing of teeth before the ENTIRE Council voted yes, they are all wonderful actors pretending pensions funding isn’t their fault. Blame the State, blame under performing markets, never Uptown! The video is available here: http://normal.org/779/Council-Videos The entire […]
By: Diane Benjamin I reported in September Normal’s funding of Police and Fire pensions was dismal: https://blnnews.com/2016/09/26/normal-what/ While Chris Koos was busy creating his vision for “Uptown”, he forgot the Town’s other needs. One of those is funding pensions for the essential personnel citizens really want – Police and Fire. Somehow the employees on IMRF […]
By: Diane Benjamin At the Monday Bloomington City Council meeting the City will claim that property taxes are not being raised. The two charts below show the library wanting a $0.03 increase and the City recommending a $1.02 decrease. (http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=11609 PDF pages 171 and 182) Both charts show magic! The library shows the Old […]
By: Diane Benjamin I helped a friend do research on property values last week. Many houses in her neighborhood have sold in the last year and the selling prices have dropped dramatically. I don’t know why the values are decreasing, but owners can not be forced to keep paying taxes on a value the house […]
By: Diane Benjamin From the Illinois Comptroller’s website: Source: http://warehouse.illinoiscomptroller.com/ProcessSearchResults.cfm?AFRDesiredData=Revenues&Code=064/095/31&CFY=2016&Menu=Yes&PrintIt=No For the year ending 3/31/2016 Notes: Normal is relying on Property and Sales Taxes more than they previously did. Bloomington has claimed that declining Utility Tax receipts means a decreasing population. Is Normal shrinking? Licenses and Permits aren’t growing. . . .
By: Diane Benjamin There is now no level of government that understands you work, your earn your paycheck, and they are NOT entitled to it! Yes, government needs the smallest piece possible from you, but they have completely lost the purpose for their theft. Government only exists to do things people can’t do themselves like […]
By: Diane Benjamin See this post: https://blnnews.com/2016/07/19/downs-the-audio/ The applicable part of the audio from the July 7th Board meeting is still over an hour. I would need to cut it into 5 parts to put it on YouTube. I’ve looked into other ways of posting it, but I haven’t found anything better. The Village Clerk […]
By: Diane Benjamin I rarely write about Normal because the citizens never get outraged. What does it take? Bankruptcy? Tonight: Chris Koos had to know the Mitsubishi plant was already sold to a liquidator, but took a trip funded by you to Germany anyway: Hope the Council enjoyed eating at your expense: Do residents […]
By: Diane Benjamin Between 2007 and 2015 my total property taxes went up almost 15%. The assessed value went up a little over 9%. That’s EIGHT years. All those rate decreases mean nothing when the assessor thinks your property values went up. Remember the 2008 crash when property values supposedly dropped? For taxes, mine didn’t. […]
by: Diane Benjamin Buy a Condo in the Ensenberger Building! I was looking for something else when I stumbled on some astounding numbers. Below are Condo Sales in the Ensenberger Building. The Property Taxes are from the Assessor’s website. Some properties list the Selling price, some don’t. I looked up the ones without a selling […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last November the McLean County Board raised your property taxes. According to Board member Wendt, the County revenues were $1,000,000 higher than the previous year. It wasn’t enough. Something interesting happened before the final budget vote. An amendment was offered by member Erickson to use part of the reserves instead of raising […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve written stories about McLean County Board member Dave Selzer’s property tax problems. His taxes were purchased by people profiting from people unable to pay. See these stories: http://blnnews.com/2016/02/29/selzers-tax-problem/ http://blnnews.com/2016/02/15/dave-selzer-tax-deadbeat/ Freedom of Information requests from the County led to the people buying taxes: RealTax Developers (Huffs) and Shannon Logsdon. Another FOIA request […]
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 […]
Source: https://www.illinoispolicy.org/illinois-state-government-takes-in-more-tax-dollars-per-person-than-every-neighboring-state/?utm_source=IPI+%2F+IPA&utm_campaign=a76a49555a-utm_source%3Dmailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0f5a22f52c-a76a49555a-14630225 Tari loved the Illinois Policy Institute when they gave him a transparency award. I wonder how he will feel about this? Of course, part of the high taxes in Illinois are HIS fault! Tell Illinois politicians they have stolen enough of your money!
By: Diane Benjamin When I moved to this area in 1980 if Democrats wanted to get elected they had to run as Republicans. Nobody here then would ever elect a Democrat. Some of those “pretend” Republicans are still in office. Today it’s hard to tell the difference between Democrats and Republicans. Big time Republican Matt […]
By: Diane Benjamin Yes the Coliseum is owned by the City of Bloomington, but that doesn’t make it legally exempt from property taxes. Central Illinois Arena Management has exclusive management rights. BMI Concessions is NOT a party to the original agreement between the City and CIAM. Until I wrote about them, 2 other companies were […]
by: Diane Benjamin After already raising 3 taxes, Renner plans to spend more money but not raise property taxes to do it. He has lots of other plans, but funding the pension plan passed by the Council will require more money. (Cutting expenses will be out of the question – just like last year). Renner […]
The Tax Policy Center looked at property taxes around the country, sorted by county, to find what the highest average tax paid by county was. In 2012, six Illinois counties broke into the top 50, but there was only one Illinois county that was in the top 100 for average home prices. What does that […]
by: Diane Benjamin What is a TIF district? Tax Increment Financing. The latest information posted on the Illinois Comptroller’s website (2010) shows Bloomington has 2 – Normal has 4: http://www.comptrollerconnect.ioc.state.il.us/Office/LocalGovt/ViewTIFReports/DisplayTIFRpt.cfm?CFY=2010&BetaSel=B http://www.comptrollerconnect.ioc.state.il.us/Office/LocalGovt/ViewTIFReports/DisplayTIFRpt.cfm?CFY=2010&BetaSel=N TIF districts are used as a re-development tool when taxes don’t want to be raised. The City of Bloomington will consider creating one tonight […]
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 […]
Illinois has 102 counties! Author Name: Brendan Bond Affiliation: Reboot Illinois How high are your property taxes? Here are the Top 25 median property tax bills by county in Illinois. These figures represent county-wide averages. Tax rates within counties can vary widely by school district and other factors. Top 25 Counties 1. Lake County – $6,285 2. […]
by: Diane Benjamin Government will never live within their means because they aren’t forced to. Citizens just sit back and take whatever is thrown at them. Many groups want your money: Unit 5, District 87, Soccer people, Community Center people, County Board, Library people, City of Bloomington – and there are probably more I forgot. […]
This report was released by the tax foundation in 2011 for 2005-2009. http://taxfoundation.org/article/property-taxes-owner-occupied-housing-county-ranked-taxes-paid-2005-2009-five-year-average The comparison is for ALL Counties in the United States. McLean County isn’t far down the list: #130 for medium property tax paid on homes #61 for % of tax paid based on home value #151 for % of tax based on […]
