Peoria Pundit

Ah, yes. Blog Peoria Project member East Bluff Barbie doesn’t post as often as I would like, but when she does, it is a doozie:

I live in the East Bluff which is also part of the hot and heavy third district city council race. Tim Riggenbach has also showered me with flyers. One of my favorites said the Tim knows neighborhoods, he lives in one. Well, holy shit! I must be an auto mechanic because I own a car. I also must be an exotic dancer because I have a g-string. Don’t insult my intelligence. Just because I’m in the lowly part of the third district, south of War Memorial, doesn’t mean that I don’t have a brain in my head. I haven’t exactly seen him in my neck of the woods campaigning and his latest literature has quotes for friends and neighbors, the majority of which are North of War Memorial. I’m glad he expects the North half of the district to carry him but when the lowly peons in the Southern half need his help and we will, I expect him to treat us just as he would treat them.

Now I seen on the Peoria Chronicle that Build the Block and Tim Riggenbach both got there campaign mailers produced and sent from out of state. To be fair you have to include Patrick Nichting in that same bunch. His flyers were produced by Victory also. I’m all for calling bullshit but call bullshit on everyone not just a select few.

Heh.

I received the following email from someone in a position to know, who may or may not want his identity mentioned, so I won’t. His letter asked some interesting questions:

In September, 2005, the JS reported “included in the Transportation Bill was $800,000. Peoria parking structure on Sears block”.

What happened to that money?

Why is the city now asking the county to pay $6 million to buy the site from the city? [Emphasis mine]

If the people that do not want, they need to select a leader who is good in promoting and setting up planning meetings to raise funds and develop a plan. I can provide the statistics and raise some money. Set up a meeting place which could be at the court house rm. 403 open to this type of rally.

As I understand it, the county is going to hold a series of meetings before Jan.30. Our administrator and Riggenbach are pushing hard to get the county board to go along with whatever the museum committee wants.

F

I’m not surprised that the push poll discussed in a previous post generated a result in favor of the .25 percent sales tax increase.

And I’m only a little surprised that the Peoria Journal Star didn’t bother to use the term “push poll,” although they did tell readers that the poll takers were biased and let their bias be known:

After describing the $136 million combined museum and Caterpillar Inc. visitor’s center in a favorable light, respondents were asked if they would support a sales tax increase of 25 cents on every $100 of retail purchases.

But I was surprised to learn that this poll was commissioned by the taxpayers of Peoria County. That’s funny, I kind of thought it was against the law to use taxpayer money on a marketing campaign to convince voters to vote on way or another. Silly me.

I wonder if there are actual lawyers in Peoria County with the testicular fortitude to stand up to Caterpillar and challenge this in court. I’m certain that Peoria County State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons would never even consider doing that.

Maybe there’s an anti-tax group or some good-government group willing to check into it. Perhaps Illinois Auditor General William Holland might have something to say about the legality of expenditure.

I’ll ask around.

But the most surprising thing to me — since I don’t really follow the Peoria County Board all that much — was that the guy who’s running to replace Bob Manning on the Peoria City Council, is all in favor of the tax and thinks the push-poll results are just spiffy:

“We were very pleased with the results,” said County Board member Tim Riggenbach, chairman of the board’s finance committee, which will recommend whether to place the tax question on the April 7 ballot. “What we got was a plurality of voters who support the project and a majority supported the sales tax increase if there was an end to it. That bodes well, I think.”

The polling results are one tool the finance committee will use as it decides whether to put the question to the voters in April, and how that question will read.

Voters will be making a lot of decisions on April 7.

Manning famously tore into the museum project this month about how none of the fundraising efforts are working, and warned voters to be learly of the public relations blitz that backers would stage to convice people that the tax was a good idea.

Riggenbach, Manning’s would-be replacement, thinks the tax is a good idea AND is an active participant in the marketting blitz.

Yes indeed, voters WILL have decisions to make on April 7.