Bill Walsh Streator Closing After Millions in Taxpayer Support
Bill Walsh Streator closes after TIF deal expires, proving Ed Benner was right all along
By The Streator Standard
The Bill Walsh Chevrolet dealership on Bloomington and Oakley is closing July 31, just a few years after its 23-year TIF agreement with the City of Streator quietly expired. The man it was named after—Bill Walsh himself—is gone too, having passed away in 2022. What’s left will soon be an empty lot, a paper trail of taxpayer subsidies, and the ghost of a letter written by former city councilman Ed Benner that now reads like a prophecy fulfilled.
Back in the mid-1990s, when the city first pitched the TIF deal to lure the dealership to it's current location, Benner wrote plainly:
“I’m not opposed to the improvement,” he said.
“But I’m certainly opposed to the way it’s being done.”
He wasn't alone in that feeling, but he was one of the few willing to put his name on it.
The Tax Increment Financing district created for the dealership funneled roughly $1.5 million in public money—money that otherwise would have gone to local schools, city services, and Bruce Township—into the private development. The city touted it as progress. Benner saw it differently.
“This means the taxpayers are financing over one-third the cost of Mr. Walsh’s new facility,” he warned, “so he can sell automobiles to the citizens of Streator.”
And that’s exactly what happened—for a little while.
But now, just a few years after the subsidies ran dry, the dealership is shutting down. The “bright new facility” at Bloomington and Oakley will be vacant, the jobs gone, the promises unkept.
Meanwhile, the schools that lost out on nearly $1.15 million in revenue over those 23 years are still scrambling for funding. The city raised taxes. The high school issued tax anticipation warrants. The elementary district ended up on the state watch list.
“Who do you think needs the $1,770,000 more?” Benner asked in his letter.
“The rich car dealer or the struggling school district?”
And yet, here we are.
Even at the time, the list of what the public was paying for was stunning. As Benner itemized in his letter, the TIF fund paid for:
$419,000 to buy the property
$90,000 for site prep
$27,000 in architectural fees
$50,000 for landscaping
$244,000 for the parking area
$152,000 in exterior lighting
$520,000 for “interest buy-down”
And $115,000 to a lawyer to “make sure Mr. Walsh gets all his money”
“I don’t fault Mr. Walsh,” Benner wrote. “He is a smart businessman. It’s the city council I wonder about.”
At the time, the city tried to reassure residents that the investment would pay off in the long run. They argued that TIF funds don’t “cost” anything because they’re based on increased property values. But Benner broke that illusion:
“Guess who will have to make up this missing revenue?” he asked. “The reliable homeowner who gets no tax break—ever.”
Nearly 30 years later, nothing about that has changed. And the latest closure shows that subsidizing private enterprise doesn’t guarantee stability, growth, or long-term value. It just guarantees that the public eats the risk.
Walsh is gone. Benner is gone. The dealership will be soon. But the costs remain.
As we look to the future and the inevitable next round of “transformational” development deals, we would do well to remember the lessons of the last one—and the voice of one man who saw through the percentages and press releases:
“In conclusion,” Benner wrote, “I really hope Mr. Walsh enjoys his new facility, because it sure is going to cost me a lot of money.”
It did. And now it’s going to cost us even more to figure out what comes next.
Which brings us to the next big question:
Should Streator do it again?
On July 2nd, the city will hold public hearings on a proposed TIF district for the new Beck’s gas station development—including the demolition of the historic St. Mary’s Church site. If the past is any guide, we already know what the brochure will say: jobs, growth, promise. But maybe this time, someone should bring a copy of Ed Benner’s letter too.
