35 thoughts on “Open Soapbox Monday”

  1. More of a question than a comment; are the traffic lights in Peoria synchronized to facilitate traffic flow? If so, can this synchronization be changed to accommodate emergency vehicles and/or impatient council people? Do the rest of you feel, as I do, that I stop for 3/4 of the stoplights in Peoria, and yet the cross traffic is never so heavy that people are unable to clear the light before I get to go again?

  2. Perhaps you travel against the grain of traffic… Going into town on weekdays the lights are synchronized on Main, Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson, and Washington. I don’t think University is in sync at all… Knoxville seems to be sync’d to go south in the AM and North in the PM…

  3. So I received my latest property tax bill over the weekend and it shows my property value going up. How do they even determine that property values are going up? From what I can tell they have dropped for everyone.

  4. Dear Bob, Yes it is not unusual for tax assessments in Peoria County to continue to increase even though your actual Fair Market Value may be going down. Several factors contribute to this. They are: 1. Lack of adequate media reporting regarding appeal dates, and, as an extension of that 2. lack of knowledge and some apathy on the part of homeowners and 3. not enough autonomy between The Board of Review, The Supervisor of Assessment Office and The County Board. To counteract these forces that work against the individual and in favor of the taxing bodies, a property owner must know when the slim window of opportunity is (30 days a year!) to appeal their tax assessment. In Peoria, that usually happens sometime in August. Homeowners in other taxing districts can call their County Supervisor of Assessments office and ask when their “appeal window” is. Then, work with your local Realtor to get comparable sale data that will support your appeal for a lower valuation, and APPEAL, APPEAL, APPEAL. If you are turned down at the local level, you will have an excellent chance of prevailing at the state level. The important thing is for Homeowners to quit complaining and get doing! Good luck.

  5. Property Taxes – We have many ways of finding help preparing our income taxes; why not some help with our property taxes? Information on the internet would be good so would someone skilled in property tax appeals to help us for a reasonable fee. Most folks are intimidated and/or confused by the courthouse experience and do not know exactly where to go and what to do to accomplish a successful property tax appeal.

  6. KYPT,
    Thanks for the response. So if I wanted to appeal the bill I just received I would need to wait until August to do so? That time frame clearly wasn’t decided on to help out tax payers.

  7. Ed, with all due respect, I’m intimidated about getting a colonoscopy but will do it because it’s the responsible thing to do. If you understand a basic chart you can fill out a tax appeal form. There is nothing to it. All the info is here: http://www.peoriacounty.org/assessmentSupervisor/complaint
    For a more casual spin, some caveats, and personal insights from a local Realtor, read here
    http://peoriarocks.blogspot.com/2007/09/real-estate-taxes-too-high-speak-now-or.html and here
    http://peoriarocks.blogspot.com/2008/09/deadline-to-appeal-city-of-peoria-real.html
    Some of the links may be outdated so use the first site to download the appropriate forms.

  8. Bob, you can not appeal the bill you just received. That appeal deadline passed almost a year ago. You must now focus on future appeals, and you are correct, you can’t do that until August. I posted some other links but they are in CJ’s moderation cue. They will be helpful to you as soon as he publishes them.

  11. West Peoria–Mine went up, probably because of District 150. However, they went up on $30.

  12. W. Hernandez;
    The whole TIF was desnated “blighted” So all buildings could get the funds? Anyone? That is a huge hole. Whaa-hoo!
    Since monies can’t be used for demo what plans for the arson fire homes? Homes that are too far gone to fix? Empty lots can’t be developed with the funds.

  13. It’s only owner occupied at the moment but when I spoke to Bobby gray, he indicated there could be special cases if city hall approves them one at a time as they did already with the EBNHS house on Illinois st. Even though I’ve heard of some animosity toward that group, I’m reluctant to criticize anyone that’s focused on restoring old houses to make a neighborhood look better. My concern is OSF getting more land and knocking everything down. I’m sure it’s no secret I believe them and the scumbag slumlords will be the ones to abuse this TIF the most, if given an penny.

    As we all know, the plan has not been finalized yet and the biggest drawback is where the money’s going to come from.

  14. Higher income taxes, budget deficits, Obama’s performance, civil unions, past history..just part of a new CAPtions feature, “Urban View”,
    with an exclusive interview with IL State Representative Jehan Gordon. Plus an emotional moment when talking about the special relationship
    with her mother, Annie Jo Gordon. Video preview of this show airing May 1 will be up by Thursday. (Thanks CJ for this Open Soapbox)

  15. “where the money’s going to come from.”
    From you and me. Nothing is free money, unless the fed goverment prints it then it becomes printed t-paper. We taxpayers all pay in the end.

  17. This is an interesting article.

    ROCKFORD (WREX) – 13 News has obtained a list of the candidates who have applied to be the next superintendent in Rockford School District 205.

    There are actually three lists of candidates, one of people who have applied to be the permanent superintendent, a second list of people who have applied to be the interim superintendent, and a third list of employees within the district that have the qualifications to be a superintendent.

    There are three internal candidates who have applied for the permanent position. That list is made up of Travis Woulfe, Richard Crandall, and Diane Roman. Of those, Woulfe has also applied to be the interim superintendent. There are two other candidates who started the application process for both Interim and Superintendent, although they never actually submitted the application. Those two men are Arthur Jackson and Ernest Fuhr.

    There are 37 external candidates for the permanent position. That list is made up of Jesse Rodriguez, Brian Ali, Robert Miller, I.V. Foster, Jr., Diana Bourisaw, Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat, Edward Caputo, Craig Ahern, Carolyn Epps, Richard Drury, Bessie Karvelas, Donald Wood, Joan McGarry, Ronald Wynn, Thomas Gay, Yvonne Bullock, Brenda Arrington, Craig Fiegel, Celeste Bowler, Herman Strandberry, Robert Luckett Sr., Ruth Suminen, Nathaniel Gibbs II, Thomas Graves, Robert Willis, Kristin Travis, John Nikolaros, James Drake, Jack Baldermann, Thomas Keeton, Kristine Schach, Nancy Tuckey, Ross Terry, Roberta Selleck, Diane Walters, Deborah Esparza and Arthur Culver.

    17 of those external candidates have also applied for the interim position, along with Carroll Smith, Janet Jones, Joseph Payton, George Richardson, Robert Schiller and Cordell Carter. The school district tells us Dr. Rudy Valdez submitted applications for Interim and Superintendent as well, but did not get them in before the deadline.

    There are 10 other district employees with the credentials to be a superintendent, but have not applied for either position.

  19. As I was reading the Rockford aerticle, I read that Sharon Kherat the principal at Manual has applied for the superintendents position. Really???

  20. a PJStar story has come out recently about Gary Sanberg having unpaid bills for a demo’d house, code violations, parking ticket, etc., and unless those bills are paid, he wont be able to serve on the horseshoe until they are paid.

    http://www.pjstar.com/news/x1336254010/Sandberg-must-pay-up-before-being-seated-for-new-term

    isnt this a bit backwards? it seems to me that if someone was known to be in this position, they should even be on a ballot in the first place. General Parker wasnt allowed to be on the ballot because of his history which made him unqualified to hold an office. So why was Sandberg allowed to be on a ballot when it was known he wasnt qualified to hold an office too?

  22. A felony conviction will keep you off a lot of ballots “big-n-italian” which is the law. Maybe Mr. Sandburg is waiting until the last minute to pay his bill. His right. That shouldn’t have kept him off the ballot. If he pays before the deadline then the whole story is moot.

  23. Emtronics — good summary. The major difference here is that:

    1) General Parker couldn’t “correct” his criminal convictions and make himself eligible to hold office;
    2) Councilman Sandberg can correct his unpaid obligations and make himself eligible to hold office.

    Though I wish this had come out earlier — might have changed some people’s minds about voting for him. You have to wonder if he’s that reckless / unconcerned about meeting his personal obligations what that says about his managing a city’s resources; but that’s a discussion for another day.

    I have to wonder since this seems to happen so regularly with him prior to being sworn in if it isn’t done consciously either for (1) attention; (2) to hold onto his money to the last possible time; or (3) his lack of concern with meeting personal obligations.

    We’ll all know soon enough how this will shake out.

  24. i understand and agree with what you are saying Emtronics, but i also agree with Peo Proud in that before we elect our public officials, things like this need to come out before an election and not after. IMO, any obligations like this should be discovered in the application process, and a candidate needs to take care of them before they are even put on a ballot. afterall, what would happen if a candidate wasnt able to take care of a problem like this before they were sworn into office?

  26. The fact the Gary owed the city money is out there for the public. All one had to do is FOIA the information from the city. Somebody did which is why we are discussing it now. If someone wanted to look at the background of Mr Sandburg while he was running, they could have seen that he had a despite with the city. I see it this way: Maybe Sandberg didn’t agree on what the city was charging him for demolition and was fighting it as long as he could. Knowing he would have to pay sooner or later, he choose later. That alone doesn’t make him a bad candidate or a felon. It’s like when it snows, and your street isn’t cleared right away, you call and they say we are working on the streets. Some street has to be last to be cleared. So, I don’t see a problem with Sandberg waiting until the last minute to pay a fine or bill. Nothing criminal involved. On the other hand, there are other candidates running that like to meet in back rooms and party’s and hack out how they are going to vote for this or that despite the citizens. Now that to me is criminal.

  27. again, in the interest of transparency, he should have revealed to voters he was badley in arrears to the city. Voters shouldn’t have to find out via FOI request. Disappointing.

  28. ” badley in arrears ” ???

    How much $1300? That won’t even light the courthouse and run the coffee machine for a month.

    Gary, you need some cash? Call me. No interest, you don’t even need to pay me back.

  29. kcdad — it’s over $13,000 and includes a variety of significantly past due amounts for housing violations, demolition costs, unpaid parking ticket, failure to register a rental property, etc. The issue isn’t whether the City “needs” the funds or whether they would make a difference in how services are provided, but rather meeting one’s obligations.

    While I enjoy his antics, it appears that several of these issues were decided through legal action and he was on the losing end of the decision.

    I think that his blatant failure to comply with City ordinances, meet his financial obligations (as determined through legal action), clearly says something ….. he needs to pay up.

  31. Peo Proud — Assuming the newspaper’s account of what Gary owes is correct, then I agree. He should pay up. However, I would submit that we haven’t heard Gary’s side of the story. And yes, I know that’s because he refuses to talk to the newspaper. Just saying there are two sides to every story.

  33. Yes, CJ, If Weaver was truly delinquent (as opposed to in a actual negotiation with the city of a complex expense sharing arrangement) than I am disappointed. That said, Gary has always made a big deal about transparency, so this does appear hypocritical.

  34. Sharon – I agree but think it’s funny. Somebody sure wants Gary to get caught and not sworn in but didn’t think, apparently, to check if any other candidate might be in the same boat.

  35. CJ — Agree, we should hear both sides. But until Gary decides to share his side, we have to go with the facts as reported (and they appear to be “facts” since they are described as legal decisions, and not just some persons claims about what he owes. I’m interested to see how this turns out. I wouldn’t be surprised if Gary has something up his sleeve, he’s very canny about these types of things. But history has shown, he gives up his “principled” fight and pays up to maintain eligibility to be sworn in.

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