Tag Archives: Peoria Riverfront Museum

Museum Block, Peoria County

County moves ahead with parking deck plans

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I attended the Peoria County Board meeting last Thursday night. Among other business, they decided to approve a contract between the County and PSA Dewberry to prepare bid documents for the proposed Peoria Riverfront Museum parking deck.

I spoke to the board during their citizen comment period at the beginning of the meeting. I had two concerns: (1) The City of Peoria should be part of the contract since they are the owners of the land on which the County wants to build the parking deck and, eventually, the museum itself. The contract calls for the County to provide site access, for instance. How does a body that doesn’t own the land provide site access? And there were liability insurance questions as well. (2) I reiterated the argument given in this post as to why the County shouldn’t start building until they count the cost and verify they have all the funds necessary to finish it.

When the item came up for discussion, one board member commented as to how our legislators “really came through” for us by getting so much federal funding for the parking deck. There were lots of accolades all around for that. Then board member Prather said we should just “get on with it” [i.e., building the museum]. Board member Widmer started to express his concerns over Lakeview’s most recent financial statement, which he said shows even more pledges have been cancelled, raising more questions about the level of private funding. Several board members laughed at him and cut him off. Then they voted to move ahead with the contract.

Museum Block, Peoria County

County ready to build without counting the cost

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The Journal Star reports that members of the newly-formed Peoria Riverfront Museum board of directors were chosen. But that’s not the really newsworthy part of the story. The real news is contained in these two paragraphs:

Once convened, [board appointees] will work to finish the redevelopment agreement for the museum block, assist in closing the remaining private funding gap [emphasis added] and in various aspects of the construction phase and develop an operating agreement….

[Peoria County Board Chairman Tom] O’Neill said he expects to break ground on the parking deck in June. [emphasis added] The total cost of the parking lot project, including design work, is estimated at $8.5 million.

Jesus said, “‘Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.”‘”

Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? Find out how much the project will cost, and then figure out how much money you have, before you start building the foundation. You’d do that if you were building a home for yourself, right? But what is Peoria County doing?

  • They don’t know how much the project will cost. The first design (the one with the big sphere) was rolled out to the public in January 2006. In July 2007, just 18 months later, they rolled out the current, smaller design. The reason given for the change at that time was “construction costs [had] risen at a much quicker rate than could have been anticipated based on historical data.” It’s now April 2010, 33 months after that design was presented. Even if construction costs rose consistent with historical data, it’s still going to be more expensive to build the project now than it was in 2007. What is that cost? Nobody knows.
  • They don’t have enough money raised to complete the project even at 2007 costs. Despite years of fundraising efforts, federal grants and earmarks, a successful sales tax referendum, IDOT funding, and the promise of state funding, they still do not have all the money raised that they needed three years ago. What makes anyone think they can raise the remaining funds now? Much of the private funding that has been raised is still in pledge form, not cash in hand, so there is even a question as to whether that money will really materialize.
  • The parking deck is the foundation. The parking deck is the first stage of constructing the museum. It is, of course, completely unnecessary since there is a glut of parking downtown as numerous studies have shown. Regardless of that, the parking deck is not designed or sited to be a stand-alone deck. Its design is specifically tailored to the 2007 museum plan. It’s an underground deck over which the museum building and grounds will be built.
  • The County doesn’t own the Sears block. Seemingly forgotten in all of this talk of construction is the fact that the City still owns the Sears block, and the County can’t construct anything on it using federal funds unless they own it or at least have some agreement with the City. So far, there is no such sale or agreement.

And so, the question is, why would the county even think about starting the foundation when they don’t know how much the whole project will cost and they know they don’t have all the money raised to finish it, and they know the prospects of getting the rest of the money is slim? Isn’t this foolish use of taxpayer funds, regardless of their source (federal, state, local)? Why this push to start construction by June? Are they hopeful that they’ll have final costs and all money in hand by then? I doubt it.

And then there are those assurances the County gave to voters before the referendum passed last year. Remember those? The County told us they wouldn’t start construction until all the money was raised. If they start construction in June, they will be going back on their word.

The only explanation I can see is that it’s a capitulation to Caterpillar. You may recall that Cat threatened to pull out of the project if the County didn’t start construction this year. They don’t want to “lose another construction season,” they explained.

Rather than capitulating and beginning this building project, the County should stick to a fiscally-responsible course. Here’s how to kill the museum project in three easy steps:

  1. Bid out the project and find out how much it will cost in real numbers to build the museum, and compare that number to the amount of cash in hand raised by the museum folks.
  2. If there’s not enough money to cover the project (and there won’t be), the County should insist that construction not start until the money is raised.
  3. Since that will entail losing another construction season, Caterpillar will pull out of the project, at which point the project dies.

To make up for the loss of construction jobs, the county could then reallocate the money from the sales tax to other public facilities that need constructing/rebuilding, thus giving the trades just as much work as they would have gotten from the museum boondoggle, but less long-term loss to the taxpayers.

City of Peoria, Museum Block, Peoria County

Peoria sends four reps and a lobbyist to our three reps in Washington … or their staff

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From Word on the Web:

Peoria County officials and a Peoria City Councilman are on their way to D.C. to meet with U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, and U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Roland Burris, or at least their staff … to discuss legislative agendas and projects the city and county hope receive federal funding.

Those officials are Scott Sorrel, Tom O’Neill, and Jimmy Dillon for the County, and Tim Riggenbach for the City. Peoria taxpayers are sending them as our representatives to Washington so they can ask our other representatives in Washington for federal money. Or they might just meet with their staffs — I guess they don’t have local offices or something. This comes on the heels of the County extending its contract with a D.C. lobbying firm to March 31, 2011, for $85,000. This begs the question, “How many representatives does it take to screw in a light bulb?” Meanwhile, the rest of us are living in an age of rapid communication — e-mail, internet, video conferencing, telephone. I wonder if there’s a way our government officials could tap into these mysterious new communication tools the way private companies are doing during this economic downturn.

But wait, there’s more. Look at what they’re requesting:

  • $900,000 for the City:
    • $500,000 to improve sidewalks/infrastructure around Harrison School
    • $300,000 to fix erosion issues at Springdale Cemetery
    • $100,000 for the Peoria Police Department’s drug market initiative program
  • $1,250,000 for the County:
    • $250,000 for a mobile dental clinic in partnership with OSF
    • $500,000 for engineering/design work to replace E.M. Dirksen Parkway
    • $500,000 for solar panels for Peoria Riverfront Museum
  • $1,100,000 in joint City/County projects:
    • $100,000 for a minority business incubator
    • $1 million for public safety radios

Total: $3.25 million.

All of the City’s requests are things the City should be doing with City revenues. But they can’t, of course, because they’re using City revenues to pay off the MidTown Plaza TIF bonds and Firefly Energy’s loan from National City (which could cost the City up to $3 million). And they’re trying feverishly to give Gary Matthews $37 million to build a hotel across the street from the Civic Center. The City squanders taxpayer money, then goes to the federal government for more taxpayer money to cover the basic services they’ve neglected.

As for the County’s requests, except for the road work, they’re all frivolous. Let’s jump right to the most egregious: the solar panels for the proposed museum. Ahem, the taxpayers are already kicking in nearly $40 million for the museum in local sales tax revenue, let alone all the “grants,” earmarks, and other pork barrel spending that’s being poured into this boondoggle. And now they’re asking for more taxpayer dollars?! What on earth are they doing with the millions of dollars they’re already confiscating from us?! For the love of Pete, another half a million dollars for the museum, so they can “save energy”? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!

If they want to “save energy,” why don’t they just take all the money out in cash, put it on the Sears block, and set it on fire? That way we can save the energy of actually building the museum and watching its inevitable fall into insolvency. Plus, we can waste all that money in 2010 dollars, instead of the more expensive future value of the money.

All I can say is, thank goodness we don’t get all the government we pay for.

Museum Block, Peoria County

County to consider museum bylaws tonight

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The Peoria County Board will have a special “Committee of the Whole” (COTW) meeting Thursday night at 5:30 p.m., followed by the regular monthly Board meeting at 6:00 p.m. The only thing on the COTW agenda is the bylaws for the proposed Peoria Riverfront Museum. If approved by the committee, then final action will be taken immediately at the following Board meeting. According to the agenda briefing and supporting documents, all museum partners have approved the bylaws, so now all it needs is the County Board’s approval.

The approval of the By-Laws by the County Board, coupled with the appointment of the 12 at-large members of the Board of Directors, will allow for the Articles of Incorporation for the Peoria Riverfront Museum to be filed with the Secretary of State. The new 501 (c)(3) corporation will then be the entity responsible for executing a Lease Operating Agreement with the County and a Site Redevelopment Agreement with the City, County, and Caterpillar.

In addition to the 12 at-large members of the Board of Directors which are appointed by the County Board, there are also 11 designated members of the Board of Directors made up as follows: five from Lakeview, two from Caterpillar, and one each from the African American Hall of Fame Museum, Peoria Historical Society, Peoria Regional Museum Society, and Illinois High School Association. However, none of these names are being made public before tonight’s meeting, you may wonder how the best law firms do it.

Also of note, get ready for another “Build the Block” direct mail blitz asking for more funds. Lakeview plans to send out two letters. “The first is a letter sent to area business leaders, and the second is the letter that will kick off the ‘Every Member Counts’ campaign,” as explained in the agenda briefing.

Museum Block, Peoria County

National Citizen Survey results reveal museum backlash

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The National Citizen Survey results are in for Peoria County. A few observations:

The Open-ended Question report includes just five references to the museum. The question was, “What do you think will be the single most important issue facing Peoria County in the next five years?” Here are the museum responses, verbatim from the report:

  • “Reinvigorating tie downtown are a finish the Museum & Warehouse District. Attract small businesses & residential to downtown to promote growth!”
  • “Raising taxes for a museum, then not building it.”
  • “I don’t think the coming museum was what we needed. For a city this time, Lake views was quite adequate – He have enough along the never and need to address other more important ways to use our monetary spending. You have a lot to be proud if in that Previous street, sidewalks & the like are being address-long way to go yet”
  • “That stupid museum”
  • “To terminate the museum project. Taxpayers cannot afford more debt for a want. Spend money on public safety services! Repeal the public facility sales tax!”

Yes, I was surprised, too. I thought a large number of people would recognize that the single most important issue facing Peoria in the next five years will be what to do with all the money that’s going to be rolling in as a result of the new museum. Actually, between that and the huge housing boom we’re going to have because of the Kellar Branch trail being completed, Peoria’s only problem is going to be deciding whether to pave the streets with gold or marble.

Incidentally, I have to wonder if a few of these responses were originally handwritten and then run through OCR (optical character recognition) software, or if people just don’t know how to type.

Meanwhile, here’s a random sampling of responses on the overall Results report:

  • 86% of respondents said job growth is too slow in the County, while 36% said retail growth was too slow.
  • Only 26% of respondents said they had attended a local public meeting, although 51% had watched one on TV.
  • 31% of respondents said the value of services for the taxes paid to Peoria County was “excellent” or “good,” down from 36% the previous year.
  • 32% of respondents said the overall direction Peoria County is taking was “excellent” or “good,” down from 41% the previous year.
  • Only 21% of respondents said the job Peoria County does at listening to its citizens was “excellent or “good,” down from 33% the previous year.

Yes, if I had gotten the survey, I would have marked Peoria County’s ability to listen as “poor” myself. Remember the previous year’s survey? It included the question, “To what degree would you support or oppose a voter referendum to increase the sales tax rate by .25 percent (for example, from 8.0% to 8.25% for the City of Peoria) to fund the remaining cost of constructing money?” Results:

Strongly support 11%
Somewhat support 24%
Somewhat oppose 20%
Strongly oppose 45%

That’s right: 65% of County respondents somewhat or strongly opposed a tax referendum. So what did the County do? They put a tax referendum question on the very next ballot. It’s not surprising that residents the following year gave them poor marks for listening, or that fewer respondents feel the County is heading in the right direction now.

City of Peoria, Museum Block, Peoria County

This land is my land, say City and County

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There’s a new conflict in the museum soap opera. Here’s the skinny: the County wants to own portion of the Sears block on which the proposed museum would be built, but they don’t want to pay the City for it, and the City isn’t too keen on that idea.

Let’s start with these lines:

“We’ve made it this far and all of a sudden now they want ownership?” Dillon asked, questioning the city’s motives.

Some affiliated with Peoria County are shaking their heads, noting the city has always indicated it wasn’t going to be “a roadblock” on any museum issue….

At-large City Councilman Ryan Spain acknowledged ongoing discussions but he said he didn’t know of any “strong push” from council members for the ownership or the co-ownership of the land.

“We still stand behind giving the land away,” Spain said. “That was our major contribution for the project.”

First of all, nowhere did anyone say that the City was going to just give the land to the County. The original redevelopment agreement between the City and the museum group agreed to lease the land to the museum for $1 per year for 99 years. So, essentially, they were donating the use of the land, but not ownership of it. Enter the County, thanks to the public facilities tax referendum. It would seem reasonable to assume that the City still planned to lease the land for the same amount, thus not being “a roadblock” in the way of museum progress. But now the the County has decided it wants/needs to own the land… well, that’s a different story. Perhaps the County was assuming facts not in evidence. Or maybe they just misunderstood. And as for Mr. Spain, I’d like him to show me the vote where the City Council said they were going to give away the land for nothing.

Moving on:

In fact, county officials argue it is necessary for them to have ownership of the property as part of a legal basis for the referendum allowing them to seek voter approval on a special sales tax through a new law.

This raises some rather disturbing questions. Is the County now saying that they have a legal requirement to own the land in order to use the sales tax revenue for the project? If so, the County has been keeping its proverbial cart in front of the horse for longer than I realized. The way the statement is worded, it’s not even clear to me that the referendum itself was legal, but I presume it must have been since the ballot wording was so broad (it was, after all, a “public facilities tax,” not a museum tax).

For those who may not remember, the “new law” includes this language (emphasis mine):

For purposes of this Section, “public facilities purposes” means the acquisition, development, construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, improvement, financing, architectural planning, and installation of capital facilities consisting of buildings, structures, and durable equipment and for the acquisition and improvement of real property and interest in real property required, or expected to be required, in connection with the public facilities, for use by the county for the furnishing of governmental services to its citizens, including but not limited to museums and nursing homes.

If the County is indeed required to own the land in order to expend funds on the project, this raises other questions. For instance, where is the money coming from to pay for Mark Johnson, the county’s museum consultant? And where is the money to pay for the “experienced counsel at the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery“?

I’m still wondering how they were able to apply for federal money to build a parking deck on land they don’t own without first having an agreement with the owner of the land. There’s still no redevelopment agreement, yet the County is moving ahead as if there were.

Maybe the land conflict will be the thing that finally does in the museum. Nah. Like zombies in a bad horror film, this project comes back to life every time you think it might be dead.

Museum Block, Peoria County

County putting cart before the horse, twice

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On the Peoria County Facilities Committee agenda for Tuesday is a resolution to secure federal funding to build a nearly $7 million (completely unnecessary and wasteful) parking deck on the so-called museum block downtown. There are two problems with this plan, as I see it:

  1. The county doesn’t own the land on which they want to build. The City of Peoria still owns the former Sears block. The agreement the County wants to approve is just between the County and the Federal government, although it does include a commitment that the County will acquire “in its name…all right-of-way necessary for this project.” Last I heard, there hadn’t been much dialog with the City about transferring title to the land.
  2. The museum project doesn’t have all its money raised yet. During last year’s run up to the referendum vote, the County stated on numerous occasions that they wouldn’t start construction until all the money for the museum project was raised. The money hasn’t been raised yet, so why would the County consider starting construction yet?

If this resolution is passed by the Facilities Committee, it should be rejected by the full Board. It puts the cart before the horse, twice.

Museum Block, Peoria County

How are those IMAX negotiations coming?

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During the run up to last April’s referendum, I talked to many people who were going to vote in favor of the museum tax. One of the big selling features for many of them was the proposed IMAX theater that would be included as part of the package. The museum group wasn’t shy about touting the IMAX. They included it by name on their marketing materials. When Citizens for Responsible Spending pointed out that the museum group had no contract with IMAX, museum officials defended their use of the IMAX brand name and explained that they couldn’t sign a contract until the referendum passed, but that they had a contract sitting on their desks ready to sign.

It’s now been ten months, and there is still no signed contract with IMAX. More tellingly, museum officials have stopped using the IMAX brand name. In their presentation to the Peoria County Board last Thursday, it was consistently referred to as a “large screen theater” or a “giant screen theater.” When board member Brad Harding asked if it was an IMAX or a large screen theater, Lakeview’s chairman of the board stated that they can’t use the IMAX brand name because they don’t have a contract signed with IMAX yet. He did say they were still negotiating with IMAX, however.

I sincerely hope that the IMAX negotiations are successful. Because if there is no IMAX, it will be one of the biggest bait-and-switch swindles ever propagated on Peoria taxpayers.

Museum Block, Peoria County

Same song, second verse from museum group

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March 6, 2009:

Although a funding gap of about $11 million to build the Peoria Riverfront Museum would remain even if Peoria County voters approve a sales tax increase next month, project officials say they are confident a successful referendum will trigger the final donations.

“We will go out after the referendum is passed, and while it won’t be a piece of cake, we do feel that once we get over the hurdle of the referendum, the other $11 million can be put together,” said Mark Johnson, project manager of the Caterpillar Experience, the Cat visitor’s center that will share the Downtown block with the museum.

April 8, 2009:

The $40 million county contribution to the $77 million museum doesn’t fully fund the project; a $10 million funding gap remains…. Officials are looking at the possibility of federal economic stimulus money to help pay for the parking garage and other public money in a capital budget out of Springfield. Vergon said he thinks the money will be raised one way or another.

“We’ve got a capital campaign to restart,” he said. “It shouldn’t be too difficult to do that because most of the people that had not pledged or committed were concerned whether we’d get all the public money or not, and it looks like that seems to be behind us now.”

May 21, 2009:

Initially short about $10.2 million even with the $40 million raised through the voter-approved Peoria County sales tax increase, the funding gap to build the Peoria Riverfront Museum is narrowing.

“We knew there were people who didn’t want to formally commit to a donation until after the referendum to see which way the vote went,” said Michael Bryant, the CEO of Methodist Medical Center, who also heads the group of area leaders and business people – called the CEO Roundtable – that is raising money for the museum.

“We are seeing that those people are stepping up right now and committing money to this project.” Bryant said the new shortfall is about $7.2 million, meaning the project has received about $3 million in donations since the quarter-percent sales tax referendum was approved by voters 50.7 percent to 49.3 percent 44 days ago. “We’d like to see the gap closed all the way by the end of the summer,’ Bryant said. ‘I’m cautiously optimistic it can be done.”

February 4, 2010:

Governance agreements for the Peoria Riverfront Museum are within sight, paving the way for construction to begin this summer, though the Museum Collaboration Group is saddled with a $7.2 million revenue gap.

So, to sum up, there was a $10.2 to $11 million private funding gap before the referendum in 2009. Not to worry, museum supporters assured us. Once the referendum passes, they were confident they could raise the rest of the money. After the referendum passed, the CEO Roundtable went to work and raised $3 million in a little over a month.

And that’s it. Since May 2009, the funding gap has remained at $7.2 million. A child conceived when the last dollar was raised for the museum could have been born by now.

Not to worry, though. Lakeview Museum Board of Directors Chairman Tom Bardwell told the County Board on Thursday how they plan to close that gap:

We strongly believe that, through research and also conversations in the community and everything that’s happening right now, we believe there’s about $4 million that can be raised in private dollars here in Peoria County or in the local area.

We also believe there’s about a million and a half dollars — in fact, we have a target for about $3 million of line-of-sight that we can see, but let’s be conservative and say a million and a half dollars — from either grants, foundations, other government entities that may make pledges towards this project, which basically takes you five and a half million.

And then there’s also a third avenue of funding we’re pursuing — some of you may have heard some of this — something called New Market Tax Credits. New Market Tax Credits are something we’re pursuing for this project. We believe, conservatively, $4 million should be our target number.

So, our funding strategy is targeted to raise about nine and a half million dollars which is obviously about the $7.2 million gap, but obviously we want to be as conservative as possible in those numbers, so we hope to get there as soon as we can….

Note that their plan to close the private funding gap includes efforts to get $4 million in public funding via the New Markets Tax Credit program. They’re also trying to get public funding from “other government entities.” And despite the fact they’ve not raised any money the past nine months, we’re supposed to believe there’s still $4 million in private funding out there based on their “research” and “conversations.” These are the same people who assured us the funding gap would be closed right after the referendum passed.

Why should we believe any of this? What possible reason is there to have any confidence in the museum group’s fundraising plans? In fact, other than the $3 million raised after the referendum passed, fundraising efforts have been effectively stalled for years, which is why the museum group came to Peoria County for tax funding in the first place.

Instead of this eternal effort to bleed the region for money, the museum should do what it should have done years ago: change its plans. Redesign the building so it’s more efficient to build. Build up instead of out, which will free up more of the block for private commercial development. Dispense with the parking deck, as there is already a glut of available parking downtown, especially along the riverfront. Cutting the deck (pun intended) and/or redesigning the building would also remove the engineering challenge/expense of putting a boomerang-shaped building partially on top of a rectangular deck. If just those things were done, millions of taxpayer dollars would be saved, and the project could be built without any additional fundraising.

The first step in problem solving is to correctly identify the problem. The problem here is not a fundraising problem. It’s a design problem. The project is too large and too expensive. Caterpillar should be using its influence to get the museum group to do their part in reducing expenses instead of bullying the County into building something unaffordable and unsustainable.

Museum Block, Peoria County

County caving to Cat on museum

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Looks like the Peoria County Board is set to capitulate to Caterpillar’s demands. In Caterpillar’s letter of January 20, they gave this ultimatum:

Our message to the Peoria County Board is clear: We must have a deadline or the work for the museum project will continue to languish; the county must modify its governance demands to allow museum activists and professionals to run the PRM; and the Board must help close the funding gap caused by the loss of New Marketing Tax Credits … the county’s contribution needs to be the full $40 million authorized.

In the absence of a positive response from the Peoria County Board by February 12, 2010, Caterpillar doesn’t believe this project can be viable. Failure to move forward in a responsive manner will result in Caterpillar withdrawing its funding commitment for a PRM and termination of our plans to move forward with the Caterpillar Visitor Center.

According to Peoria County Board member Merle Widmer, the County has drawn up an agreement that dutifully complies with Caterpillar’s demands. “The board will be asked to increase the amount voted to give the museum committee to $40 million instead of the $34.7 million the board voted on to help make up the shortage in the endowment,” he reports. “To accept ownership of the building, the County Board will be asked to approve a minimum of three contracts totaling 120 pages . . . and containing such language ‘that a board member can be removed without cause’, an advisory committee (all agreeing to the museum mission) of not more than 60, several layers of boards with the county owning the building forever.”

And if you ever thought the County Board was a professional, deliberative body, looking out for the best interests of taxpayers and thoughtfully considering both sides of an issue, Mr. Widmer adds an account of this conversation, recorded in closed session when at a meeting from which he was absent: “…Mike Phelan, Democrat County Board member [told] the Executive Committee to disregard Merle Widmer and get on with building this museum. He said the public voted on it and the public wants this museum…. He also said board members comments should be limited tommorrow afternoon and Board Chairman, Tom O’Neill said something about ‘putting a sleeping pill in his water.'”

Impolite comments about fellow board members aside, Mr. Phelan forgets that voters were told in town hall meetings that the county would be financing $34.7 million of the cost, and that the museum group would be responsible for raising the rest of the money. Caterpillar is blaming the County for the supposed loss of $5 million in New Market Tax Credits, and are demanding $5.3 million in additional funding from sales tax receipts. No independent proof of this supposed “loss” has been produced, at least publicly. Nevertheless, it appears the County is willing to take the rap for the alleged loss and plug the hole with yet more public funding. All the while, there is still a huge question of whether the other private money that has been supposedly raised will materialize. Most of it is in the form of pledges that have yet to be collected.

A Committee of the Whole meeting will take place today (Thursday) at 3 p.m. at the Peoria County Courthouse.