Levee Issues

Good articles this month regarding the levee issue in the Illinois Business Journal, which is free online.

Link to The Journal - Levees are discussed on pages 1, 20, & 22.

The levee issue seems more and more like a shakedown from FEMA with every bit of information that comes out. Les Sterman should be commended for his work on the issue. The region has a lot riding on how this issue turns out and so does the federal government, in the way the resolve the situation. It should be no surprise to Washington that the American people have lost much their trust.

I must also add that in my view trust lost in Washington should not only apply to the party that opposes the one you favor.

"Let’s meet our responsibility to the citizens who sent us here. Let’s try common sense.

To do that, we have to recognize that we face more than a deficit of dollars right now. We face a deficit of trust – deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works that have been growing for years. To close that credibility gap we must take action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to end the outsized influence of lobbyists; to do our work openly; and to give our people the government they deserve." - Obama, 2010 State of The Union Address

Without getting into the politics of the rest of the speech and his actions over the lats few months in direct opposition of these statements I feel he expressed what many Americans feel toward their Representatives in Washington.

Star Bonds On Hold

The Star Bonds seem to be on hold for at least a while.
Story from The Record

The surrounding communities have concerns that their current retailers will go out of business.

Citizens should have concerns with the state operating with an unbalanced budget and a negative bank account while contemplating the issuance of bonds to fund private development.

I do understand the way development works nowadays where companies demand some incentives and if they don't get what they want they go somewhere else and see what they can get there. Whichever location gives the best deal gets the development. Private companies and developers should still have to pay for their fair share of anything. I also have a hard time understanding how fair it is to small businesses that have to use their profit to make improvements while larger companies get to pay for things with taxes that should be going to improve the community as a whole.

I suppose most communities/states still say that 50% of the projected millions of dollars is better than the tens of thousands they make from the land now.

Star Bond Discussion from Tuesday City Council Meeting

Clip of the City Council talking over the Star Bond issue.

Star Bond Update

The Star Bond legislation is being tagged onto another Senate Bill which is relatively unrelated.

You can access the status and bill texts by clicking on the following links.
SB2093 - Status
SB2093 – Text
House Amendment 2 – Star Bond

SB2093 amends two sections in the “The Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Administrative Act” and one section of “The State Finance Act”. These changes are eleven pages long. SB2093 has one Senate Amendment and two House Amendments, the second of which is still pending.

The Senate Amendment is one page and directly reflects changes to the wording of SB2093. The House Amendment One amends another section of the “The Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Administrative Act” that was not previously covered in the original wording of SB2093, this amendment is also about one page long.

House Amendment 2 as filed by Representative Holbrook on 1/11/10 is the Star Bond Legislation. It is 288 pages long and from what I can see offers no value to SB2093.

I understand this is how many pieces of legislation get passed. I have to wonder what the intention of making it an amendment here is. I don’t know enough about it but maybe SB2093 is important enough that it will get passed by those who would not like to see Star Bonds be enacted. Was it added as an amendment to another bill so as to not draw as much attention as it did last fall? Whatever the reasoning is I would still encourage you to call your Representatives and let them know what you think about the amendment.

The local opposition from all areas of our government is too strong to waive off as jealousy that the development is not in their community. The concern is from communities near and far to the site location.

Star Bonds Still Alive

This issue was discussed as well at last nights council meeting. I will add the video of that discussion tomorrow. I am linking to a story from the Edwardsville Intelligencer to get everyone up to speed. I would suggest calling all of your state reps and getting some input on this to them. Ask them how it helps in the long run. The state cannot pay its bills to anyone and they are working to fund with tax money a private development.

I'll be digging some more info to share with you but I would highly suggest calling ASAP as this is being slipped through as an amendment to another piece of legislation if my understand is correct.

MORE INFO from the Madison County Record

Email me with any info and I'll share it here.

Cherry Street Update

I know Cherry Street affects a great number of people in town. Last night at the city council meeting the construction in Old Town was discussed at length. Rather than summarize the whole discussion I uploaded the video for you to watch and listen to yourself.

But in short the city has begun the process to call the Performance Bond and the Material/Payment Bond. It could take a few months for things to start up on the project again regardless of bonding. The street was supposed to be opened today for use while the situation is figured out.

The concern for the contractor by the council is understandable but the concern for the material suppliers who are local should also be of concern when analyzing the situation. I think the council did the right thing by getting the ball rolling on this.

Illinois Libraries

http://www.saveillinoislibraries.com/

If you use the library here in Columbia then you have more than likely borrowed a book from another library in the system, if you haven’t then let me explain. The Lewis & Clark Library system allows for participating libraries to share their materials with other participating libraries. Columbia’s library may not have the space or the resources to have a copy of every new bestseller, a vast section on the history of India between the 1 and 3rd century, or a DVD section that would put a chain of Blockbusters out of business but chances are a library that participates does. It allows for smaller libraries to share with larger libraries. All of this is at no extra cost to library patrons.

This system is getting closer to its demise, not for the efforts of those who run it; they have kept it going for all patrons while the state has held off on helping financially. The state of Illinois as we all know is in deep financial trouble. The state has not funded the library systems since July ‘09. If you use these services or if you respect the value they add to your community as a whole, take some time and send an email or two, call a representative, or tell some of your friends about it.

Your state officials need to be reminded what is important to you on an ongoing basis.

Suburban Journals | Opinion | OPINION SHAPER: Contemplating political office in 2010?

I found this article to be rather well written and it speaks to what I feel and would expect most people to feel.

I would encourage as I always do to have people get involved. Find answers to your questions and contact any of your elected officials if you ever have a comment, suggestion, or question.

Suburban Journals | Opinion | OPINION SHAPER: Contemplating political office in 2010?

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Mixed Use Development District

This item has been discussed twice very briefly at the last two committee meetings. Apparently when it was last voted on and not approved it was because there was a push to have the TIF financing information / restrictions included into the ordinance.

Jim Agne said last week that the MDD and the TIF documents cannot be together in an ordinance. Financing requirements must be separate from the MDD requirements.

I requested and was given copy of the MDD yesterday via email. I have attached links to the five MDD documents below. I will follow up and request the TIF info as well, since it was inferred that these documents will act together for any developer who approaches the city.

MDD
MDD Appendix A - Use Matrix
MDD Appendix C - Landscape Requirements
MDD Appendix D - Signage Requirements
MDD Appendix E- Schedule of Parking Space Requirements

I have to feel that the city has been contacted by at least one developer if not more over the last year. Otherwise the city would not be working on passing this ordinance or have worked on the Programmatic Agreement again last year.

I have read through the MDD, while I saw a few items that I scratched my head on I would have to say the document took some time to put together and seems fairly straightforward, I think the Planning Commission formulated the MDD and I would think it a bit troubling if the city simply never enacted the document without explaining to those people why or what would need to be changed to make it acceptable or give them a reason why it cannot be enacted after all of the time and effort went into its preparation at the request of the council.

Upcoming Elections - Don't forget to Vote

I started this blog last year in March when I became confused with all of the differing opinions and rumors I had heard regarding candidates of our local elections. I started off with a questioner to the mayoral candidates.

The Chicago Tribune has something similar going right now for that you may find helpful in evaluating the candidates for the upcoming elections.

While I am sure the Chicago Tribune has some bias as most media groups do, paired along with them being Chicago based which means Columbia and the rest of Southern Illinois are the farthest things from concern it is still a good format for seeing what candidates responses are.

I feel if candidates take the time to respond to simple questions with concise answers then they are maybe on the right track. Albeit many of them will sidestep the questions and talk up topics they want to mention. You would have to agree though this is better than checking their campaign websites that specifically talk about what those candidates have spent months thinking about with finely crafted responses and ideas that they believe will get them elected.


Races for our district(s) here in Columbia that you should all take note of.
US Congressional Races
U.S. Senate
12th Congressional District
Illinois General Assembly races
58th Senate District
116th Representative District


I would mention while I have no vested interest in promoting any of these candidates there are a few I find interesting regardless of if I would vote for them or not.

Jason Plummer, Candidate for Lt. Governor
Jason is an up and coming Republican here in Illinois. While you may not be Republican I would have you take notice of him regardless of your political affiliation for the simple reason he's a young person doing what he feels is right. Not many people his age are willing to or have the ambition to put themselves into that type of political race.

Cheryle Robinson Jackson, Candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois
While she was a part of the Blagojevich camp she has put together quite a campaign and has done quite a bit of work in her time at the Chicago Urban League.

Walmart possibly leaving St. Ann - A "TIF Story"

Click here to view the story at stltoday.com

I have heard many sides of the TIF issue many times before and while I believe that TIF’s can be used effectively examples like this are troubling. This is one neighboring community “stealing” income from another community, albeit they are sharing the revenue currently. This is the main issue with TIF financing in my eyes.

That issue is developers finding the sweetest deal from any willing community and having stores migrate there while leaving empty buildings behind and possibly a community with a significant loss in revenue. This cannot be blamed entirely on the developer as the retailers themselves are often as guilty hopping from community to community following the money and wealthiest population.

St. Ann will lose the revenue from the current facility while Walmart moves a few miles down the road for greener pastures and more space. In this situation the issue is not space though as I would have to believe there are plenty of suitable locations for development in St. Ann. Greener pastures is what I think this is about. More traffic a few miles down the road between two interstates and a developer ready to help with the financing.

The communities in the metro area need to talk to one another and treat each other with respect. That is hardly what seems to be happening in this case.

“But Bridgeton Mayor Conrad Bowers said the entire area would benefit from the new store and he wanted no fight with St. Ann. He said he had invited St. Ann's mayor to the TIF commission meeting.”

I would have to think St. Ann is not going to share the same viewpoint here. I would have to doubt that St. Ann feels much of a benefit from all of the other stores in Bridgeton; obviously Northwest Plaza is not feeling the benefit, so how does losing its second most valuable revenue stream benefit them in any way? That would be my question for Bowers if I were mayor of St. Ann attending the meeting tonight.