Scott Preston, the youngest person to ever be elected to Normal Town Council, is taking his ambition a step further and will campaign in the 9st legislative district.
Preston said every 10 years there’s a redistricting process in Illinois it’s a partisan process out in Springfield where new legislative maps are drawn.
“One of the outputs of that this time around is that you have a 91st district that did not exist looking at all [like it does now]. Unfortunately it really chops up communities and chops up our community right here in McLean County. It’s one that for the 91st specifically is Bloomington-Normal and in a general sense Veterans Parkway tends to be the eastern border. If you follow Veterans through the community and go west from there, then over to Rivian motorway, roughly that’s the Bloomington-Normal borders. It also goes north-west, more west than north, and picks up communities in Tazewell, a little bit of Woodford, and even over to East Peoria, the Illinois River, and down into Bartonville. It’s more of a stretch than the previous 91st,” said Preston.
There was speculation Tari Renner, the former Bloomington mayor, would run in the district. Renner has decided not to run. There have been no other announcements in the 91st that Cities is aware of. Why isn’t Renner running?
“Primarily, since I just stepped down as Mayor a few months ago, I needed a little more of a psychological “break” from the rough and tumble of a political campaign,” said Renner. “Further, there are some very left Democrats who are interested and I didn’t relish a primary. Finally, I’m getting married in May so I’m giving attention to my personal life for a change.”
Preston said he knows some people think he’s crazy for wanting to take something like this on.
“I’m from this community, I was born and raised here. I was educated here. I’m a small business owner here, that I built up and founded here. I met my wife here,” said Preston. “We love this community. We love Bloomington-Normal, we love central Illinois.”
Preston said we have had a state government that just hasn’t lived up to what he believes the people deserve.
“Hopefully my experience as a small business owner and my time in city hall in Normal will leave me in a good position to try and have an impact and focus more on people, focus more on solving problems for families rather than partisanship and politics that we’ve seen coming out of Springfield that hasn’t been serving us well,” said Preston.
Preston has come under heat for voting to increase taxes on Normalites. The tax levy flat rate stayed the same, but the council voted to increase in 2019 and despite extra revenue from ARPA and the federal COVID relief dollars the council voted to raise the taxes.
“Let me first say that our federal dollars that have been given out to all states and communities around the country from COVID relief, those have stipulations on them that they are to be utilized within a certain parameter of COVID impact related efforts,” said Preston. “Those are not money that you can spend on anything. In terms of the recent property tax levy, the town of Normal is about 11% of someone’s total property tax bill.”
Preston said within that is the council’s job to vote on and approve the tax levy, Preston said the council held their rate for property tax levy for the town of Normal.
“The reason that some might suggest that it is property tax increase is because the value of your home increased,” said Preston. “If your rate is the same, but your home is worth more then by a dollar figure it is charged accordingly. The rate is the same. Frankly I feel like people would want their homes increasing in value, want their local economy to be strong. I think that reflects it. While not increasing the rate and holding the line on that for the town of Normal.”
Preston said the state of Illinois and our state government has been too big, it’s been too bloated.
“It hasn’t been nearly as efficient and it hasn’t been focused on helping families as efficiently or effectively as it could be. I think that we are in a situation where you are seeing, across the country, record inflation,” said Preston. “Having a focus on a smaller more efficient government, having a focus on not charging people to death. Instead, creating good value for government services is something we need more of down in Springfield.”
Preston said there is a lot of time between now and if he were to secure the 91st spot, but Chris Koos, the mayor, would ultimately have to appoint a new council member to fill Preston’s seat.
Scott Preston appeared on the Morning Rush Friday, Jan. 14
“Listening to stuff that’s important to them and the real tangible experiences that they are having and the real ways that state government is holding them back, and their families and communities back. That’s where my focus is, that’s where my priority is. God willing if things are how we hope they are and I have the privilege of serving after November. We’ll take on the Normal thing at that point and follow whatever procedure needs to happen at that point. There’s a lot between now and then,” said Preston.
