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The State of Illinois recently extended the Enterprise Zone program (Public Act 097-0905). Peoria’s enterprise zone was due to expire next year (2013), but has now been extended until 2016, at which time the city can apply to have it extended for another 25 years. In addition, the criteria for awarding Enterprise Zone status [...] There’s a Public Radio show called This American Life, hosted by Ira Glass, that I enjoy. They have a theme for each one-hour episode, and the episode is split into several segments, or “acts” as they call them, with each act looking at the same theme in different ways. Back in May, they had [...] I’ve talked about the misuse of Enterprise Zone status on several occasions here at the Chronicle (e.g., “A New Kind of Poverty,” “Discussing Incentives with Craig Hullinger“), so there’s no need to go into another lengthy explanation. Here’s a quick summary: the Enterprise Zone is supposed to be used in “depressed areas,” defined as [...] Craig Hullinger has written a blog post about the necessity of providing incentives to rebuild a city’s downtown/older neighborhoods. Hullinger used to be the Economic Development Director for the City of Peoria until he retired in 2009. Since that time, the City has not hired a replacement; instead, Economic Development personnel report directly to [...] I have mixed feelings about the recent windfalls of state money Peoria has been told its getting. In the news recently have been announcements that we’re getting $10 million to upgrade Washington Street and $17 million to renovate Peoria High School and build an addition onto Lincoln Middle School. On the one hand, [...] The City of Peoria is taking steps toward establishing another growth cell and tax increment financing (TIF) district. There’s even a website devoted to it. The website is very informative; it includes a map, a frequently-asked-questions (FAQ) page, and a timeline. Here’s a brief overview of what’s happening: The City has been using [...] “The city doesn’t have a budget problem,” Gary Sandberg told me after the city council voted to spend taxpayer money for a walking trail and a private hotel. “It has a priority problem.” That was the same observation made by Dr. Heywood Sanders of the University of Texas-San Antonio. Sanders is a well-known critic [...] Back in May, Peoria’s Economic Development director Craig Hullinger asked District 150 to be a part of the Enterprise Zone for the Main Street Commons project, and I wrote this post in response. Craig, who is a really nice guy and very communicative, wrote me and we had an interesting e-mail exchange. He asked [...] I was given an artist’s rendering of the “Main Street Commons” project being proposed by Devonshire Group. This is the project that can supposedly only happen if District 150 gives the developers their share of the property taxes for five years. It is proposed to be built at the corner of Main and Bourland. [...] I don’t think there’s a bigger cheerleader for Peoria than Economic Development Director Craig Hullinger. He’s trying to reach people through every method possible; he’s even using Blogger to set up a pseudo-blog for the Economic Development department. Now, he’s started directly e-mailing the media, including bloggers, with good economic news about Peoria. Here’s [...] |
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