" This is what increased local sales taxes and property tax increase sequestration, does to an economy.

While this view, fails to list a figure of individual participants, in its reporting of valuing percentages of figures, I think from my exposures the rent is average to slightly high, and 58,810, is high for local average household incomes. I know many families here live on less than 35k a year. Several cope with much less.

While these numbers as provided do actually mean little, the supported idea that folks shop out of town, I will concede.

This is what TIF does to communities. We are at or close to a tipping point of resident retention. We have two colleges in our area. Focusing on retail and hotels or restaurants, in tax payer funded economic development initiatives, is providing opportunities for low wage jobs, and a few more places to eat or sleep. It is a stagnant market for those things. Established business are competing for local dollars, with new publicly funded developments, creating an uneven playing field, and still barely maintaining the exact same markets we had before this became this cities development plan in full. We are not a retail mecca that folks won't mind extra kicker sales taxes, or a 1 percent business district shopping tariff. Unless industry is backing retail up, in a several jobs for one ratio, over developed retail business is doomed to fail. Its basic economic principles.

Misguided development plans, have placed this area on the precipice of failure. We are close to being on the verge of folks being forced to migrate elsewhere to find jobs, better ones, or just to get out from under all these local taxes. We are a very few job cuts from necessity out weighing nostalgia. Many residents have multi generational local ties. Events like are going on at lake paradise, city parks, sidewalks, leaf collection and streets, being mismanaged or completely ignored, contribute to pushing folks away, and keeping them from landing here in the first place.

Focus has to shift immediately, and TIF, and 10M bonds, need halted. It is and has been the wrong direction, and this area needs to focus on its prior commitments and responsibilities, and get them properly managed, long before it proposes to take on new ones, and creates more taxpayer responsibility of any kind in the process.

The mall had water issues, less than 10 years after it was opened. They had a tidal wave in the front paking lot back in the early eighties. It was poorly designed, and poorly planned. They should have sought relief from the developers back then, not looked to taxpayers and the city, to fix a poor assessment of structures issue.

The south east corner of town, was built in a mostly backfilled flood plane. Relators should be required to divulge that information and any site specific known issues. A ditch and pond, will move some water, but is now the best time to spend millions to guess if it will do enough overall, to completely properly drain the flooding areas in a deluge?

Basements now flood all over town, because of poor planning by the city, and storm sewers not being capable of keeping up with moving proper amounts of water. Residents are told the city is not liable or responsible for damage, or even the water backing up. This happens in places that used to be dry, but city development has been poorly designed, infrastructure is not up to the new demands, and residents are required to solve the issues on their own. Its on the other side of town, from the south east corner that has flooded since it was built in a back filled flood plane. Why should old pre existing issues, be handled before more newly developed ones are? Why should the entire city, pay for a ditch and pond, moving some water from one section of town?

Develop a neighborhood association for that area, affected by the flooding, and use grants and their tax money to fix their problems. Probably requiring an area specific tax hike, until it is paid off. Like the proposal Wortman mentioned this spring, if some people wanted their streets paved, instead of rock chip or oil slag, they could pay more on their property taxes as a neighborhood, and get it done. I am sure residents expect results. The entire town is in that same boat. A ditch and pond alone, is not going to solve the big picture problem. If an engineering firm is saying it will, they have little knowledge of water management and hydrology issues. If they will guarantee their results, to specifically defined broad areas, of that part of town, I would say bind them to it, and move on the issue, when the city is in a better position to make this kind of investment, and has sustainable growth occurring in and out of TIF zones.

Now is not the time to guess on large city wide investments, on anything. Use the land that was way over paid for, for industrial development. Taking farm land, and turning it into a retention pond, should have been an at cost acquisition, using imminent domain if necessary and proven guaranteed results could be obtained from this project.

Tax money is not a blank check, it never should have been in the first place. This kind of attitude, is why this area is on the precipice of failure. Local leaders led this area to the edge, and have no idea what went wrong. TIF and bumps in sales taxes taxes were sold to solve everything in some presentation. They bought the lines and ran with the new game plan ball. Look at the studies on TIF's actual effects on growth use and economies.

Google Illinois TIF tax payer, several of them are right there to look through. Some I found predate TIF coming to Mattoon. Evidently the whole picture was not looked at, on a pro and con basis, when this city added TIF to their economic development tool shed, and threw most of the tried and true development tools out or just continually ignore them now.

Look at the Charleston square, it is near the end of its TIF life span. Tell me what sustainable gains have come of it, benefitting the city for sequestering increased property tax funds and funneling them to the district. for 20 some years worth of mostly doing routine maintenance on existing structures. It was not thriving, when Mattoon jumped into the same game. It has failed to accomplish the key to sustainable development and growth. A cornerstone business that is a wide ranging draw has to lead this type of development. further development moves to the increased market, and they compliment each other, in the existing market available.

Simply funding any and all development by sequestering property tax money and offering other incentives, does not work. Build it and they will come, only works in the field of dreams movie. Mattoon wants to be heavily involved in sponsoring funding for a convention center and other sit eat sleep and shop development in a perfectly good corn field. This misguided involvement and its developers is what brought the TIF blight to our town in the first place.

While folks are shopping out of town, they might pick up a local paper. Look for a better job, a responsible city to live in in proximity to that job, and eventually a house. If this town were in a position to offer jobs, a city responsibly doing its required and expected functions, and housing with good streets, sidewalks and parks, in every neighborhood of town, it would be on the receiving end of these migrations, rather than facing the reality of being on the losing end of them, as a direct result of their continual misguided efforts and inability to function or even simply do their assigned jobs. "

" Now apparently fully convinced of a renewed and strongly supported superiority, in having fended off any and all the competition for their market share here. It seems this News group has decided to mow the goldenrods out of their fields. Only their opinions are worth ith sthalth, sorry a little too much over processed salt. worth its salt, it should have said.

It was already heading that way. I am sorry for the commenters if my tiring, of this papers complacency, improperly placed superiority complex, and my honestly expressing those notions, might have contributed to any of the expanded censorship that has obviously expanded. Between this News group, and some local leaders, it might just be citizens are wrong, and people with plaques on their desks and walls, are just always right. It could be that opinions are fine, if they leave any opinions on cerain issues and topics, on various groups and individuals, out of this public discussion.

Almost makes folks yearn for the yester year party line phone system. Not for the inconveniences of the busy body phone network or operators, but just for the speed accuracy, and honesty, gossip news used to root out trouble, before it took hold. Its like that dandelion treatment. Put it on the whole lawn, and the stuff that supposed to be there, does just fine, but most weeds, shrivel up, or don't get started at all.

This paper, over the years, has occasionally put politicians, lawyers and citizens feet to the hot coals, for their personal lives, business exploits, decisions, and legal entanglements.

For the range carriers sling papers, these market shares are paltry. This online thing was a good version, possibly the best site for a paper, I have yet accessed. Its contols are skewed, and some of its implementation amateur.

Ads are often on nearly every page, or link and not one public traffic counter exists. If people are buying ads, they deserve honest open feedback of the traffic. Not just a well our records show this, take our word for it.

Some but not all, blame for this paper becoming what it has, should go direcly to Lee Enterprizes. Ulimately they do pull the purse strings, and inspiring reflection and change with in, on many set in their ways groups of folks here is like trying to stack jello, and forgetting to add the knox blox ingredient to it.

These folks delve in creative accounting, and self gratification surveys. Having taken a sociology class, in my college experience, I recall that surveys are only a useful tool, if they are worded to be, and their issuing and collection of data, has to be monitored verified and been done completely unbiasedly. The school board, failed at math in high school testing, but the senior exit surveys are up, so all in all they are doing an effective job as educators. Being wrong is not failure, its human. Ignoring to recognize, or even atempt to evaluate, if you are right or wrong, in some businesses, is considered fraud. Govenment and News papers, get to police themselves for the most part. Local government elections, take place in yeas with the least voter turn out. That is easier to maintain their desired paths, than if their seats went up, in high turn out elections, when folks are focused and determined to take issues and corruption to the mat, and go out and be heard.

Journalism and politics are cozy bed fellows here often. Take this election. I guess coroner and the states atorney, are the local sets up for importance. We are three weeks from the last day to decide, early voting has already begun, and not one interview with a candidate, to set records straight. What, they would have to do six total, to get all three candidates for each job on the record, and inform voters. I haven't seen a letter to the editor from candidates, stating their own cases to the public either. States attorney is an important public service position. Shouldn't readers, who are encouraged to turn to this compilation of provided statements, to be infomed of whats going on in their neighborhoods, kind of think coverage of important local news and events, needs to be a little broader, and less obviously biased, and possibly steered and directed. Shouldn't they expect to find questions on issues posed by reporters, and reported factually in these pages.

This paper is in a market of one. They have no competition. They only compete with reason. Is this paper doing its job? Is it worth a subscription, or half a dollar, to keep informed on what limited and controlled information does make its pages? Is it atempting to correct possible internal issues, or is it in some selfgratifying trance of its own self importance, and peoples opinions, only really matter if they fall into their own peramiters? Many local governing bodies fit this same mold. We need changes throughout, many of them will have to take it upon themselves to recognize and make them. Contact their leaders and oversight bodies, and express issues and concerns direcly and openly. Perhaps their hands truely are tied, and heir bosses need to free them, to do their jobs effectively. We can only speculate and guess, when the only infomation we are provided is sub par regurgitated press releases and second hand gossip. "

" - About two-thirds said they read the JG/T-C online edition at www.jg-tc.com; almost half do so on a daily basis.

-----------------

I wonder what the percentage might be it they updated more than every 48 hours? Or if they allowed posts that were critical of the paper or certain entities and individuals, within the area, to stay on more than a day or two? "

" A few hundred responses, not verified individual ones at that, is less than one percent of this papers readership. A news paper running numbers on less than one percent of its readers as any verified source they are doing their job, and informing responsibly is selfgratifyingly complacent. "

" I try and shop locally but have you seen the attrocities in the local stores they call fashion? Dayze some mightly ugly stuff dar fella. It's making me eye my sewing machine again. "

" I agree with Harry on this one!
Time for a Change! "

" Harry Potter wrote on Oct 19, 2008 10:56 AM:

"Or if they allowed posts that were critical of the paper"

.......

I guess I'm not allowed to be critical.
My posts @ 9am & @ 12:50pm didn't make it on here.
Let's try for attempt #3 at @ 3:45pm.

I guess if you sing the praise, you're allowed, but if it's vile, you 're not.

And to think, we're allowed to beat the two Presidential Candidates over a rock, or give other posters constant severe tongue lashings, but not the paper or the local big-wigs?

Sounds fair to me....... NOT!

If I've done wrong & broke the rules, either temporarily or permanently ban Rotty & Rockin Rotty, or my ip address, & let's be done with this nonsense.
Otherwise, let's be a little more just with YOUR critics.

I'm done.
Adios my friends. "

" Charleston has a lot of options for men's clothing, don't they? Well, if you like wearing the cheap Chinese made stuff that is. "

" It doesn't matter anyway, the Governor is planning to close all cities south of I80 to save the state money. "