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Normal FORGOT!
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...
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Portillo, Town – Monday night
By: Diane Benjamin See the packet for the Town of Normal Council meeting Monday night here: http://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2249 Portillo Summary: The project is being done by a...
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Oops! Allin Township Fire
By: Diane Benjamin From the Illinois Comptroller website: Allin At a Glance In 2016 they borrowed $103,309 and paid back $39,131 http://warehouse.illinoiscomptroller.com/ProcessSearchResults.cfm In...
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Normal: Less than 18 years ago
By: Diane Benjamin Chris Koos has been mayor of Normal since 2003. Voters claim to want term limits – isn’t 14 years enough time to enact one? More reasons exist to dump Koos though. At the end of...
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WOW! YEAR-OLD financial statements
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington finally released the financial statements for April 30, 2016. The TIF report still hasn’t been released and neither has a separate audited statement on the Coliseum....
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Bloomington Debt
By: Diane Benjamin A reader asked me yesterday what the debt for the City of Bloomington looks like since Tari Renner became mayor. Another reader did the research for me. Below are two tables he...
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Town of Normal Debt
By: Diane Benjamin As of 3/31/17 PDF page 41: http://www.normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/12750 Yes the citizens still owe $87,783,723 for Koos’s Uptown dreams. Police pensions are only 51.76% funded...
View ArticleFun Facts (or not so fun facts)
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington population: 78,005 Normal Population: 54,264 Bloomington Total Budget: $214,126,710 PDF Page 2: http://www.cityblm.org/home/showdocument?id=13155 Normal Total...
View ArticleNormal: It’s the Council’s fault!
By: Diane Benjamin The Town of Normal is pretending pension expenses are mandated by the State and they can’t afford them without raising Property Taxes. Somehow the Police and Fire pensions have been...
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Normal Tossing Money (Yours!)
By: Diane Benjamin Normal bills for Monday night: http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/279242 When your property taxes go up Monday: You will be told the cost of other people’s...
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Normal: Found in the financial statements
By: Diane Benjamin If the Comptroller’s office ever does their job, comprehensive TIF reports will be available. So far they don’t have the software completed to allow entry of information....
View ArticleHow bad are Normal’s finances?
By: Diane Benjamin What we do know: The freshman class this year at ISU was down 9.3% https://blnnews.com/2017/09/07/numbers-lie/ State Farm has cut employees and is cutting more Normal has a...
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Like Debt?
By: Diane Benjamin See this story from December 2, 2017 https://blnnews.com/2017/12/02/normal-tossing-money-yours/ Bond payments look like they are made twice a year. On the agenda for Monday night:...
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Debt: Normal vrs Bloomington
By: Diane Benjamin As of 3/31/18 Normal had total debt of $89,823,286. $88,125,000 won’t be paid off until 2041. Interest rates range from 2.00% to 6.30%. Source As of 4/30/18 Bloomington had total...
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How much debt is Decatur in?
By: Diane Benjamin Follow-up to this story: https://blnnews.com/2019/03/29/the-tale-of-two-downtowns/ How much does a pretty downtown cost? I find it hilarious that RC McBride is running radio ads...
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More on Normal
By: Diane Benjamin This information is from the budget: https://normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/14883/2019-2024 I don’t know why the budgeted revenue was decreased for this year, but Normal still...
View ArticleKathleen Lorenz: Facts do matter
By: Diane Benjamin Problem identified: Kathleen’s facts are right, Stan Nord’s aren’t. Did Kathleen read this story? Her facts were WAY OFF!...
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Normal budget – in short
By: Diane Benjamin If you want to watch the almost 7 hour budget session you can do so below. You won’t be able to see the slides discussed by the Finance Director because they aren’t on the video....
View ArticleNormal’s Debt and the Cost
By: Diane Benjamin If you still haven’t played with the Local Government Reporting on the Illinois Comptroller’s website, do it now! This is the link to Normal’s reported debt:...
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