By Greg Halbleib
NORMAL – A candidate for Normal Town Council says he can add a new viewpoint to discussions.
Ron Ulmer has taught economics at Illinois State and Millikin universities and has been a landlord for 38 years. He said he would bring a different perspective to the council.
PODCAST: Listen here to Ulmer’s interview with WJBC’s Sam Wood.
“One of the problems with the Normal council currently is what I call ‘group think,'” Ulmer told WJBC’s Sam Wood. “If you’ll notice, almost everything recently has been passing 7-0, and there’s been little discussion.”
Ulmer criticized the incentives handed to a popular restaurant planning to build in the town.
“The role of the government is not to pick winners and losers and subsidize one business over another business,” Ulmer added. “That’s what we’ve seen Normal doing recently, for example, Portillo’s in providing $1.8 million to the developers of their site.”
Ulmer claimed Normal offered the incentives so that the restaurant would locate there and not in Bloomington. He says he would have voted for the Rivian Automotive incentives because he considers it true economic development.
The municipal election is Tuesday.
