By Eric Stock
NORMAL – The man trying to unseat Chris Koos as Normal’s mayor, political newcomer Marc Tiritilli, said his plan is to reprioritize the city’s spending habits.
“Our town is $94 million in debt, we owe $53 million on top of that and we are short in our pensions by $109 million; that’s a quarter billion dollars that we owe on top of running the town,” Tiritrilli declared. “That’s all been accumulated in the last 14 years and I am looking to change that.”
PODCAST: Listen to Scott’s interview with Tiritrilli on WJBC.
Tiritilli, a science teacher at Bloomington High School, questions the incentives the town has given to Rivian Automotive and Portillo’s in the last year.
He told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin he would also like to gradually roll back the one-cent sales tax increase the town adopted last year. Tiritilli also criticized the town paying for a 1.4 million dollar feasibility for a pedestrian underpass at Uptown Station when the town was ready to move on an overpass.
Koos has said the pedestrian crossing won’t happen without significant state or federal funding.
The general election is on April 4.
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].