Daily Archives: December 31, 2008

Museum Block, Peoria County

Sales tax referendum discussed at county finance committee meeting

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I couldn’t attend the Peoria County finance committee meeting Tuesday, but activist and regular commenter Karrie Alms did and provides this scoop:

Today’s Peoria County Finance Meeting was a real treat of new information.

  1. Peoria County feels that they will need to get the City of Peoria to title the museum property to them so that the County will be able to legally issue revenue bonds for the museum project. So, the County is in the process of carrying that water to the city.

  2. Roughly $35M will be needed for the museum project. Roughly — not a firm figure. Is that an increase, decrease or the same amount from the last figure on record? Wonder when that figure will be firmed up?

  3. That the resolution (the referendum language) will refer to a “public facility” not the museum specifically.

    I asked that as a voter in the voting booth, how would I know that the money would be specifically used for the museum? I wouldn’t know and that the museum people will have to make their appeal to let the voter know that the money is for the museum. Special, seeing that PA 95-1002 (born as SB 1290) refers to public facilities. I guess we will just vote to pass another tax for the County to start a fund for whatever suits them.

  4. And my favorite, that once the county has repaid the bonds, that the county could just give the land away to anyone — the city, the museum group or whomever. This concept was repeated at least twice.

After the bonds are paid off, Karrie told me, the County would then transfer title to the property back to the City or possibly the museum directly. I believe it was said in the meeting that it didn’t matter which entity got the property.

It’s interesting to me that they’re planning to use revenue bonds. What revenue will this project be producing exactly? Just a couple weeks ago, the city decided against using revenue bonds to pay for the new Marriott hotel downtown, opting for general obligation bonds because there was no established revenue stream. Now the county will be using revenue bonds for a project that will most likely need a perpetual operating subsidy? Where’s my municipal bond expert commenter? I need some more explanation on this one.

In answer to Karrie’s second question, the number was $24 million in November 2007 when it was first pitched to the county. By November 2008, the number reported was $35 million, evidently due to increased construction costs.

As for the referendum language, it is certainly vague if they’re indeed going to ask for a tax to go for a “public facility” without specifying said facility. They could use that money for anything, including other facilities besides the museum if the tax raised a surplus of money.

One other interesting note that Karrie didn’t mention: the results of the online survey were quite a bit more negative than the phone survey. On all the questions, a rather large majority was opposed to a sales tax increase regardless of the reason.

State of Illinois

Blagojevich appoints Burris

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From the state that gave you “the audacity of hope” now comes the audacity of Blagojevich. The Chicago Tribune reports:

In a display of political bravado, disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich today appointed former Illinois Atty. Gen. Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate, challenging national Democratic leaders to reject the appointment of an African-American to the seat that propelled Barack Obama to the White House.

What’s really funny is Bobby Rush. “Democratic U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush of Chicago […] underscored the role of race in the governor’s decision by using racially charged terms to defend the appointment.” Yet it’s Secretary of State Jesse White (a black man) who won’t certify the appointment, and President-elect Barack Obama (a black man) who is also repudiating the appointment. I suppose Rush would have us believe they’re racist, too.

Obama explained the situation perfectly in his statement:

“Roland Burris is a good man and a fine public servant, but the Senate Democrats made it clear weeks ago that they cannot accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat. I agree with their decision, and it is extremely disappointing that Governor Blagojevich has chosen to ignore it. I believe the best resolution would be for the Governor to resign his office and allow a lawful and appropriate process of succession to take place. While Governor Blagojevich is entitled to his day in court, the people of Illinois are entitled to a functioning government and major decisions free of taint and controversy.”