Local: Museum backers trot out deceptive push poll
Bob Manning was right when he said last week that the museum project backers were going to go on an all-out public relations marketing blitz to convince voters to approve a referendum raising sales taxes to support the project.
Blog Peoria commenter Mahkno left the following comment in a previous post:
Museum folks ran a very push orientated poll this eve. Had a good 30 second to full minute intro about how great the education benefits would be, how much revenue it would bring in (14 million), how many jobs it would create (150 union jobs), its 86% paid for so far, and how low a burden it would be (25 cents per…).
Would you support a sales tax increase? Mmm no.
What if it were tied to other public service like firefighting and police? Mmmm… no.
What if the tax were only temporary, to expire at some point? LOL… Civic Center? … MMmmm No…
Done.
Trouble is, the only people who want public money to pay for this damn thing are the people who are in the professional economic development racket, and politicians like Dave Koehler, Aaron Schock and Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
And what’s this about it being 86 percent paid for? I call bulls***. If this thing was 86 percent paid for, they wouldn’t be having to swipe pennies from little old ladies and single mothers at the checkout line at the dollar store.
UPDATE: Oh, yeah. I just noticed. C.J. is shamelessly swiping my site’s content. Well, imitation is a form of flattery.
December 19th, 2008 at 2:08 am
So… you must be a really big admirer of the Journal Star, eh?
December 19th, 2008 at 8:33 am
I’m assuming they arrive at 86% by adding the cost of Cat’s portion into the equation, which will be fully paid for by Cat.
December 19th, 2008 at 11:52 am
I’m all for building the block- the right way. Why don’t the Block-heads send some of their ad budget on some public forums to get some input into what we really want and need on that block. It might be easier to do that than to continue to shove their lame concept down our collective throat.
December 19th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Answer: It’s because of Caterpillar. Cat doesn’t grasp the concepts of inclusiveness, comprise and public participation.
Caterpillar hijacked what should have been a simple drive to build a museum of downtown history. With the exception of Bob Manning, Gary Sandberg and Merle Widmer, there are no local politicians with the testicular fortitude to tell them “no.”
They will keep coming at us and coming at us until we give in, or there’s change in top management at Caterpillar.
December 19th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Caterpillar? Whatever. Why don’t you just go ahead and blame Aaron Schock, the Cardinals, your hosting company and the McDonald’s drive-thru and complete the set?
As far as I’m concerned, Cat should just wash their hands of the whole thing. They just laid off 800+ people in Mossville. They have other issues to deal with than building an aggrandized shrine to some arrowheads and an autographed 8X10 of Richard Pryor.
Bloomington continues to be put through the ringer on the US Cellular Coliseum, a project that had a resounding level of opposition and indifference from the public, but got built anyway, because politically connected developers got it ramrodded through. It’s been hemorraging money ever since, but most of the “cheerleaders” for the project have since moved on to pick pockets via other boondoggles.
Turn back before it’s too late! Time for the Build the Block crowd to admit that people just don’t want the thing that much. Stop telling yourselves Peoria is so darn interesting… it’s not. It’s a nice town, but not worth an $80 million (which, of course, means $130 million) museum.
BLOCK THE BLOCK!
December 19th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I agree with Super J to an extent, this has nothing to do with CAT. If they wanted to they could take the entire block and build whatever they wanted to on it regardless of whether or not a new museum goes there. I think you’re a little blinded by your yellow hatred Billy. If CAT wanted this thing done as bad as you claim, it would be done.
If CAT really is as powerful as you claim when it comes to influencing politicians and Peoria in general than they wouldn’t have let this thing drag on for as long as it has. The museum would have been built a few years ago. But it wasn’t, so either CAT doesn’t care as much as you think (my opinion) or the all powerful CAT who pulls all of the strings on every man, woman, and child in the area (Billy’s view) doesn’t even have enough power to develop one city block. Which one sounds more likely?
December 20th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Kudos! It is a racket. All these commisions, councils and development groups. Paid outrageous money to help taxpaters how to decide to spend taxpayer money. Seems a bit like a more sophisticated mob protection scam. Someone should check Peoria Next and see how much was spent to settle a lawsuit under the table with BU, while their leaders spend monthly stipends on fast cars and faster women.