The Peoria City Council endorsed the creation of yet another tax Tuesday night. This time, the tax is on natural gas:
By a 7-2 vote, the council endorsed a “hybrid tax” in which two different assessments will be levied on natural gas users. The first, which will affect residential, commercial and industrial customers, is a 3.5 percent tax on gross receipts resulting in about $33 to $34 more for the typical residential user each year.
The second is a $0.0035 (35 hundredths of a penny) per therm tax on larger consumers who purchase natural gas on the open market.
The tax is expected to generate $2.2 million in 2011, and $2.4 million in years thereafter. The 2011 tax will be assessed on February’s Ameren bills.
So now, during the coldest month of winter, the City is going to start taxing everyone for their natural gas usage. Councilman Eric Turner said (according to the Journal Star), “There is no one around this horseshoe who wanted to do this. (But) we did not have a choice.”
I suppose it’s true enough that the council had no choice but to raise revenue in some way, but that’s not really the whole story, is it? The truth is that the council left itself with no choice because of prior poor decisions.
For instance, there was the Firefly loan guarantee that cost the City over a million dollars. There was the $2.8 million-appraised Kellar Branch rail line that the City gave to the Park District for $1. And the $10 million Sears block that the City gave to Peoria County for another dollar. Let’s not forget the $55 million the City spent to overbuild the Civic Center and the $34 million they’re poised to spend on a hotel to connect to it (this amount includes a developer fee of $9 million).
Some of that money was in assets that could have been sold. Some of it is debt that we are or will soon be paying. And some of it is in cold hard cash. But all of that money is flying out of our pockets due to poor decisions. Now the chickens are coming home to roost, and we suddenly do “not have a choice” but to raise taxes on Peoria residents.
It’s like a guy who spends his paycheck on cigarettes, alcohol, and poker games coming home and telling his wife, “Gee, honey, we have no choice but to pay our bills with the credit card this month.”
No choice, indeed.
Exactly — what a disconnect on Mr. Turner’s part … and please remember the debt sevice for the Midtown Plaza fiasco, the Gateway Building a la rusty stairs paid from taxpayer dollars instead of city staff minding the store and having the developer pay for the replacement while still under ‘warranty.’
The law of the harvest once again plays in more dollars from the taxpayers pockets while the basics are further neglected. All in the name of ‘progress’.
It would be interesting to see the demographics and geographics of the non-business bearers of the tax burden. I suspect that for the most part it will be borne by many who are less able to absorb the additional costs. I have yet to read what parameters were utilized in order to say that the “tax on gross receipts result(s) in about $33 to $34 more for the typical residential user”. Is that average based upon total city households or gas heated households?
My previous neighborhoods (Edgewild, Hawley Hills etc.), like most north city areas, seemed to be almost exclusively fitted primarily with heat pumps accompanied by electric furnace back-ups. Now I live in in a 19th century neighborhood with almost exclusively gas fired boilers, which mimics most areas of the bluff and below the hill neighborhoods. I look forward to seeing what the relative impact is between my north Peoria friends and my central city and below the bluff friends – unfortunately, I think I know the answer.
It seemed to me that water usage was a far fairer methodology for increases in utility taxation. All neighborhoods use the same water. But what the hell do I know?
Funny…
I thought “quality of life” was affordable living…
I am thinking the museum will not have any trouble paying its gas bill, they seemed to have stumbled into an $8 million dollar windfall. We can all go there to stay warm.
Does anyone know if the new museum will have a liquor license?
No need to fear…., East Villige TIF will be here! A repeat of Midtown Plaza soon to come. A cash cow ($5m)for sewer relocate and repairs (under OSF property), trees, and ornimantal street lights abound. but crime unchecked. Slum landloards and 35+ year old blighted structures (OSF main house, forrest park,north buld,old allied agency buld, bishop’s home!) Where is the comon sense Non taxpaying busness getting a Tax increment district? Just window dressing for the hood as to help with individual homeoners.
This is totally ridiculous to do to us. I have to keep my heat now down to 60 now because of the high heat bills. I tell everyone in the house to put on more clothing. Guess it will be time to get space heaters. It is the people on the city council who have money that are trying to ruin the rest of us. That is why it is important to vote off all but Sandberg. Hopefully Summers will be like Sandberg and say no when it comes to taxing us regular people to death.
I can’t think of a more regressive tax than one on natural gas. Everyone uses natural gas, except, indeed, many newer, upscale houses that primarily use electricity. This burden will affect the poorest citizens much more intensely than the wealthy. If you live on Social Security, $35 means a nice chunk of your annual income. If you make $60,000, you won’t notice it.
BTW way cttsp5, we also keep our thermostat at 59, but do have a gas fireplace insert that keeps a small room cozy. I live in here during the winter. I can see my breath when I sneak into the kitchen for more coffee.
Peoria residents should tell the council they have “no choice” but to move out, and then they should do it. The council will sober up when there is nobody left that is paying their taxes.
District 150 Observer had to report back to work today, look for fewer comments from him.
“Does anyone know if the new museum will have a liquor license?”
I heard some one say they would have liquor and gambling but no smoking.
Hmmmmm. I am generally perceptive, but that “back to work” comment baffles me.
The city council didn’t slam it to businesses that use natural gas or at least big businesses like ADM and most likely OSF. They slammed it to the residents. Yes ti fixed income people, this will be yet another expense meaning less of something else. To those that work one or two jobs to get by each week, this will also be a burden. To someone like Van Auken or Spain or Ardis or Turner, hell they waste this much gas at cocktails parties. When everyone moves out of Peoria, who is left to go to the businesses and support this city? Well I do believe there are a lot of smart people out there. We’ll just have to see how smart or how many of these smart people we have at election time. Maybe we can fire almost half the council in April.
Am I the only one who figures that this is a good way for the powers to be to not have to pay for all their pet projects. I guess my thinking is that a property tax increase would hit most of them pretty hard. This gas tax will be the cheaper option for them. The flip side is that for many in peoria the property tax would probably be cheaper.
I would bet that the tax will not be doing the YWCA any favors. They are one of the “evil” non profits that the council consistently refers to. I find it immensely hypocritcal when council members complain of non profits not paying “their fair share”. These same non profits save the city money by relieving police from being tied up with mentally ill clients or severly intoxicated clients. provide shelter for the homeless instead of police handling them, dealing with crisis calls, domestic violence, run aways, etc. These services if run by the city would cost millions upon millions in salaries and compensation, due to union costs. Non profit workers are paid significantly less, have fewer benefits and work a lot of uncompensated overtime and will work until they pass away because there is no pension system for them. So hitting them up with a gas tax cuts into client services. It also will effect bottom lines for client services such as St. Jude, Susan G. Komen, etc. which are supported by council members. Council members complain about valuable land being owned by non profits, but then come to tears as they give away a valuable piece of land to an organization who will not pay tax on it.
What is most frustating are people who make “too much” money to qualify for energy assistance, but not enough to make ends meet. The middle class is gone in Peoria, there are various degress of wealthy, those on welfare and the working poor. The wealthy will pay the tax and complain. the welfare will still crank the thermostats to to 80 degrees then get LiHeap or money from a social service organization to pay utilities, then there are those who struggle just to meet their basic needs or even just a little beyond that. Fixed income seniors, low income jobs, will have to pack on extra sweaters, or like us, turning down the thermostat even more. We don’t get increases in income, we have do without to make ends meet.
Until pride ceases this council will reward the rich and then complain about not being to provide the basics. Anyone with a brain realizes that that after Midtown, Firefly, Globe,etc. that subsidizing development is a losing effort would back off the subsidy/giveaway train and say were did we go wrong? But pride stops this. Oh well refer to the definiton of insanity.
Given that ADM pays about 1/2 of this total tax bill would you call it a Naural Gas tax or a ADM tax?
I wonder how much money the City will end up loaning/bribing a future employer to come in and replace ADM should they decide to close their plant. ADM has lots of other plants in the country that could be run at a higher capacity to make up for Peoria. they can also find lots of communities to set up shop in that are tax friendly. So can the other employers that might set up shop in our town so I guess we will have to bribe them to come or here’s just a wild idea…..lets not tax business and industry so much.
Mr. Candidate Summers:
Kindly provide line item list of spending cuts you would prefer in lieu of these taxes.
Thank you.
P.S. No fair including PAST spending we are paying for now.
😉
(Hey, you wanted to run for office)
Forbes just released its list of “Top Ten States People Are Fleeing.” A number of reasons are given for the declining populations in these states…
New York ranked #1. Any guess as to #2?
“The Prairie State came in at No. 2. Illinois is expected to lose 27,000 people this year, consistent with its average annual loss over the last five years. The losses are likely linked to the state’s economy and tax structure. Job losses in manufacturing and industrial machinery are likely pushing people out of the state, Karp says, adding that state taxes have also been “an issue” for many residents.”
Was Forbes talking about the entire state; or just Peoria…?
Little match girl found frozen outside city hall. Cha Ching says the council as sub zero weather/blizzard conditions predicted….(all tongue on cheek)
Billy — I don’t have a list at this point. I can tell you that I’d want to look at what we’re currently subsidizing (e.g., downtown parking) and try to end all unnecessary subsidies. I don’t understand why the Econ. Dev. dept. keeps getting its employees added back into the budget while we’re cutting police and fire personnel. If we couldn’t cut enough to close the gap, then I’d look at a package liquor tax rather than a natural gas tax.
But I think you’re missing the point of my post. The point is that we need council members who don’t paint themselves into a corner like this in the first place. You say, “No fair including PAST spending we are paying for now.” I understand where you’re coming from, but I think we need to talk about past spending so taxpayers see the connection. These budget crises didn’t happen in a vacuum. Part of the reason we have such limited options at budget time is precisely because of “past spending we are paying for now.” We need to do something about that kind of unwise spending in the future. Otherwise, we never get off the merry-go-round.
“P.S. No fair including PAST spending we are paying for now.”
Why?
Love your blog, but respectfully disagree with your opposition to Heart of Peoria redevelopment efforts. If a city does not lead the redevelopment of its older central city, it will continue to decline.
Take a look at beautiful downtown Harvey, Chicago Heights, and Gary. I know the cities well. Most of their efforts to rebuild their central city was too little, too late.
We would all prefer that we did not have to incent the redevelopment of our older cities, but that is not reality.
I will write a longer response on my blogs.
http://cityplanningnews.com
http://cityofpeoria.blogspot.com
Craig — Your argument would be more persuasive if these incentives had ever been successful. When will we start seeing the fruits of all the redevelopment we’ve already incentivized? If the Civic Center and O’Brien Field were to be catalysts, why is there no new private development around these projects? Riverfront Village not only has no new private development around it, 1/3 of the project has itself turned into a non-profit office building — and we’re spending a quarter of a million dollars to replace the stairs to boot. Firefly has cost taxpayers over a million dollars. The Gateway Building is costing taxpayers $170,000 a year to maintain and operate. MidTown Plaza is still sitting there vacant, sucking a half million dollars from our general fund every year — it was supposed to revitalize the East Bluff, remember?
These incentives haven’t worked, Craig. How many more times are we going to try the same thing and expect different results?
I’m all for revitalizing our older neighborhoods and central city. I just believe we need to start doing that by investing in public infrastructure instead of, say, giving $37 million to a private developer to build a private hotel for his own private profit in the vain hopes the City will see more tourists/conventioneers. We’ve tried selling the family cow for magic beans over and over, but have yet to see them grow a beanstalk to wealth. It’s time for a change.
Old Chicago Pizza on the Riverfront closed for the winter; I thought only ice cream stands closed for the winter.
We are on a path to sell the cow again today.
NOTICE & AGENDA
OF A JOINT REVIEW BOARD MEETING
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT THE JOINT REVIEW BOARD WILL HOLD A MEETING ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2010 AT 3:00 P.M. AT CITY HALL, 419 FULTON ST. ROOM 404.
AGENDA
CALL TO ORDER
ROLL CALL
APPROVAL OF DECEMBER 10, 2010 MINUTES
I. Vote on Eligibility of the Potential East Village Growth Cell (EVGC) TIF
II. Other Business
A. Next Meeting Date
CITIZEN REQUESTS TO ADDRESS BOARD
ADJOURNMENT
Old Chicago on the “Pad” is closed?
Emtronics: Yep. WMBD-AM even has a story on it (click here).
I can understand Old Chicago’s decision to close for winter months. The restaurant business is very tough these days no matter what you serve, or your location. Couple that with the Riverfront area that’s not as active. Fortunately, those that love Old Chicago can still go to the one out by Grand Prairie. Some folks will probably say they feel safer going to that one anyway.
I’ve only tried their pizza 1-2 times…it’s ok, but not that great to me.
I’ll be interested to see if Craig Hullinger responds to you, C.J.
Kind of hard to argue with your statement.
It sounds to me like Old Chicago on the riverfront has one foot in the grave. This sounds like a last ditch effort to save the business from going under and making yet more room for the Heartland offices. Thank our lucky stars the museum will open 2012 and that will save this business and all downtown.
Then Dennis says; “Some folks will probably say they feel safer going to that one anyway.” meaning folks can use the Grand Prairie Old Chicago and feel safer. Why is that Dennis? Is it because of the ice and flooding?
It wouldn’t surprise me if Old Chicago is closed for good.