Posts Tagged ‘ Museum ’

Taxpayers have few defenders on the Peoria County Board

December 21, 2009
By Billy Dennis

Brad Harding is having a tough time finding fellow members on the Peoria County Board willing stand up for taxpayers and demand that backers cough up the private funding that voters where promised for the riverfront museum project: Peoria County voters in April approved a quarter-cent sales tax increase to raise up to $40 million...
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We can see museum’s future a few miles down the road

November 23, 2009
By Billy Dennis

Several yeahs ago, the powers that be in Bloomington decided that there HAD to be a new Coliseum in their fair city. Merle Widmer took a look at clippings from The Pantagraph and sees some parallels between their project and Peoria Riverfront Museum: I know that the museum pushers are going to say “but we...
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One-sided ‘Word’

July 27, 2009
By Billy Dennis

Today’s Word on the Street leads with details about how Caterpillar Inc. was revealed to be a behind-the-scenes contributor to the Build the Block campaign that convinced taxpayers to pony up for the plan to build a museum on the site of the former Sears in downtown Peoria. Caterpillar sees the museum as essential to...
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Someone pays B.U. ‘economists’ to predict quick end to the recession

May 12, 2009
By Billy Dennis

Hooray! The recession is almost over. Yippie! Two Bradley professors said so. Ummm, waitaminute. Where did I hear these two names before? “The second half of 2009 should see the U.S. economy on a slow recovery track, said Joshua Lewer who, along with Bob Scott, chairman of the school’s economics department, addressed 90 people at...
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C. J. Summers is a sore loser

April 10, 2009
By Billy Dennis

Over at Peoria Chronicle, the esteemed Mr. Summers looks at the city’s financial woes and comes to an obvious, if tongue-in-cheek solution: If the recent election has shown us anything, it’s that the vast majority of Peoria residents don’t give a hoot whether their taxes are raised. Most of them couldn’t be bothered to drag...
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Time for a new beginning

April 8, 2009
By Billy Dennis

Now that I’ve gone and moved moved the Peoria Pundit to its own domain, I suppose I should start blogging up a storm. But I’m tired and bummed out over this last election. I saw too many friends turn on each other. And it never feels good to be on the losing end of a...
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Today’s news: High taxes play in Peoria, as least as far as Peoria legislators are concerned

April 2, 2008
By Billy Dennis

Links are via the Journal Star. The snarky commentary is my own: We’re one step toward an involuntary county-wide tax to pay for a regional museum no one wants to pay for voluntarily. All it needs is approval from the House of representatives and the governor. Aaron Schock and David Leitch are already on board....
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Today’s News: Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure

March 23, 2008
By Billy Dennis

The links are via the Journal Star. The snarky commentary is my own: Reporter John Sharp turned in a nice package of articles on the Warehouse District. The main story details how the area — just southwest of what we consider “downtown Peoria” — has evolved from a industrial and distribution center based on railroads...
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Local: Museum debate online (UPDATED)

March 16, 2008
By Billy Dennis
Local: Museum debate online (UPDATED)

Note: This is a post from yesterday, but I bumped it up a bit. Wanna hear what goes on in Springfield? The intrepid radio reporter Dave Dahl sent me an mp3 file of the Illinois House debating whether or not there should be an opportunity to raise taxes county-wide to pay a $15 appropriation for...
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Today’s news: Linkage

March 10, 2008
By Billy Dennis

Here’s some links to keep readers amused as I look for a guest for Sunday’s radio show about litter: From Chef Kevin’s site, this email he received about the downtown museum:  ”…seems to me if they can’t do the marketing and promotions to raise enough money to BUILD the museum, why should anyone expect they’d be...
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Local: Apparently, the state legislature needs to kiss Caterpillar’s butt, too

March 7, 2008
By Billy Dennis

From the Journal Star: A plan to set aside $12 million in state funding for the proposed Peoria Riverfront Museum took another step forward Thursday, when the House of Representatives approved it. The vote was 80-23. Suddenly, that deliberately deceptive poll conducted by the county makes sense. You know the one that claimed a majority of respondents...
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Local: Poll gives a resounding ‘no’ to museum tax

February 27, 2008
By Billy Dennis

C.J. Summers took a look at the figures, and it turns out that the pro-museum push poll conducted by the County of Peoria actually found that at no time, under no circumstance mentioned, do voters support any kind of tax increase to pay for the regional museum that Caterpillar and other movers and shakers...
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Local: Quick! Think of better uses for $12 million than that damn museum (UPDATED)

February 21, 2008
By Billy Dennis

State Rep. David Leitch thinks there’s a good chance the state will come through with $12 million in state money (READ: Money taken from taxpayers) for the Peoria Riverfront Museum. The cash would be included in the Capital Development Fund for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and would have to go to a capital...
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Local: An historic argument against earmarks

February 11, 2008
By Billy Dennis

Apparently, we are supposed to read this article and come away with the conclusion that earmarks — which is the government and media’s new work for “pork barrel spending” — are good. Without earmarks, we might now have wonderful things that the uber-museum in downtown Peoria The reality, however, is that anyone who’s been paying...
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Media: Selective boosterism from the PJS

November 29, 2007
By Billy Dennis

PeoriaIllinoisan says he’s sitting on his hands even though he’s got “fireballs coming out of my fingertips.” Gee, could it be that PI, a big booster of the  Peoria Playhouse Children’s Museum, is just a tad POed at the headline above today’s Journal Star article: “Children’s museum funding drags.” Caterpillar has just announced that it...
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Today’s news: Getting tough on landlords

November 27, 2007
By Billy Dennis

Links via the Journal Star, unless noted: Once again, evil railroad tracks have lured someone into the path of an oncoming locomotive device. This time, it’s a pickup track that collided with a track sweeper. Speaking of rail, blogger C.J. Summers blisters the Journal Star for its illogical opposition to running the Rock Island Trail next...
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Local: Ask and ye shall receive? Not for the museum, anymore

November 9, 2007
By Billy Dennis

The downtown museum backers asked the Peoria County Board to give them $24 million. That’s $24 million in taxpayer dollars. They can’t talk ordinary donors to cough it up voluntarily, so they want every single taxpayer in the county to pay up involuntarily. Seriously. If the board says “no,” that might very well mean the...
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Today’s news: Crime, like the Journal Star edit page, is a pain in the ass

October 9, 2007
By Billy Dennis

Today’s news links via the Journal Star: At first, you have to wonder how stupid a former police officer has to be to try to solicit an undercover officer. Then you realize he was fired for misconduct, so the guy obviously lacks impulse control, as do the vast majority of criminals. The reader comments on...
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Press release: New names for downtown museum vote

September 29, 2006
By Billy Dennis

Just a moment ago, I received the following e-mail from Kathleen Woith: We heard you, so the Peoria Museum Partners Invite Community to Help Choose Name from New Options Peoria, IL, September 29, 2006 – Think no one cares what a museum is named? Not so, judging from the responses when the Museum Collaboration Partners asked...
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Museum naming fiasco delayed

September 21, 2006
By Billy Dennis
Museum naming fiasco delayed

The committee that’s running the naming contest for the new downtown Peoria museum decided to wait until next week to let us in on what choices voters will have. My two cents: These these names were decided by a committee, I’m not expecting anything remotely sensible. The place is going to be a...
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