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Comments

  • child safety seat in texas: Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wanted to say that I’ve...
  • Dennis in Peoria: According to May 16th PJS, Jim Richerson is out as PRM CEO, with Debbie Ritschel named interim CEO....
  • fashion: This is the right weblog for anybody who desires to find out about this topic. You understand so much its...
  • shops: I? need to examine with you here. Which isn’t something I often do! I get pleasure from studying a...
  • fashion: There are some fascinating points in time on this article however I don? know if I see all of them middle to...
  • 50+Peorian: Anyone know what Doug Oberhelman’s dog is named? I was told it is Dozer. Yep, he named the stadium...
  • Imagine: Imagine, this hotel being recently purchased. New investors & owners doing an extensive 5 million dollar...
  • J: People like MBD can cry about consolidation all they want. There’s no doubt that Peoria would have had an...
  • AnneC: And even MORE not-so-shocking news: http://cinewsnow.mlnwap.com/ar ticle.html#!/76660/3d5b84a0...
  • mbd: this isnt just happening in peoria either.
  • mbd: You do realize that this are privately owned companies right? They exist to make money. Local tv stations are...
  • concerned citizen: Joe Dulin is a liar. unfortunately, code enforcement for profit already exists. Property owners in...
  • ProudPeorian: A little “Rock Island Rocket” history for the masses. http://csanders429.wordpres...
  • ProudPeorian: Sorry for the typoes in my previous proclamation…Peoria and its surrounds (communities) are short...
  • ProudPeorian: Forget Bloomington/Normal. Remember the awesome days of the Rock Island Rocket.I know thats it’s...

What do you think of your property assessment?

According to Peoria County, the value of my house has gone up. But I have friends, relatives, and neighbors whose home values have gone down. According to Supervisor of Assessments Dave Ryan, the County is expecting the equalized assessed value of all property in the County to go down by 1.5%. He doesn’t have [...]

Don’t be fooled by empty rhetoric from City officials

There’s an article in today’s Journal Star I just couldn’t let pass without comment.

City officials including Mayor Jim Ardis have … expressed some of their frustrations with other taxing bodies in Peoria — namely Peoria Public Schools District 150 — for increasing its property tax rate while the city avoids similar hikes [...]

New utility tax proposed for Peoria

The Journal Star did a good job of covering this:

By a 9-1 vote, the City Council approved a tax on natural gas usage, which would equate to roughly $24 to $25 a year for the typical residential customer of Ameren Illinois….

Originally, the council had planned to approve a 3.5-cent-per-therm – a measurement [...]

D150 to raise property taxes again

From the Journal Star:

The School Board on Monday voiced a consensus seeking what amounts to about $69 million in local property taxes next year, an increase of about 1 percent, but far less than the 6.5 percent increase requested last year…. The proposed levy would add about $18 [to a $100,000 home]…. Prompting [...]

Township property taxes are going up

On the agenda for Tuesday’s City Council meeting is this item under Town business:

RECOMMENDATION: Approve the Proposed Estimated Tax Levy of $2,179,219 with an estimated tax rate of .13663 for the Town of the City of Peoria and enter this action into the permanent record.

The item goes on to say that “the [...]

Illinois Policy Institute advocates TIF reform

The Illinois Policy Institute, a non-profit think tank, has issued a new report calling for reform of the Tax Increment Financing process. It’s called Tax Increment Financing: Hidden in Plain Sight. The article uses examples from Chicago almost exclusively, but the information is applicable throughout Illinois. The Institute says more transparency is needed in [...]

Come watch the rich get richer

From my inbox, this notification from the City Clerk’s office:

WE HAVE JUST BEEN ADVISED AND YOU ARE HEREBY NOTICED THAT A MAJORITY OF A QUORUM OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF PEORIA, ILLINOIS, HAVE BEEN INVITED AND MAY ATTEND TO WITNESS ILLINOIS [GOVERNOR] PAT QUINN SIGN THE HISTORIC TAX CREDIT FOR THE PROPOSED HOTEL [...]

PJS Editorial pretends City asset giveaways have nothing to do with budget crisis

A couple of responses to today’s Journal Star editorial. First, there’s this:

Even Mayor Jim Ardis, who never saw a tax increase he didn’t greet with contempt, seems to have come to the realization that City Hall probably can’t cut its way out of this.

That’s not exactly accurate. Mayor Ardis happily voted to [...]

City Attorney says nothing more can be done to protect against erroneous sales tax collection

Back in July, I reported on some overtaxing that was taking place in Peoria. I discovered first-hand that when businesses erroneously charge too much sales tax, the citizen who is overcharged pretty much has to fend for himself to get reimbursed.

A communication from the city’s legal department to the city council more [...]

Tax confusion widespread in Peoria

The local media started looking into (and publicizing) the story I posted a couple days ago about Peoria businesses charging too much tax. The Journal Star has two articles here and here, and WMBD Channel 31 did a piece on the 6:00 news tonight (the web version is here).

I just want to reiterate [...]