Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Gift Week / Politics / News / Clout City Mayor Emanuel gives Sara Lee a big, wet, and sloppy $6.5 million TIF kiss
Posted by Ben Joravsky on 12.13.11 at 10:30 AM
- Sclaishop/Wikimedia Commons
Yay, you!
You're apparently so wealthy you can afford to give between $5 million and $6.5 million to Sara Lee, a multibillion dollar food conglomeration.
Actually, most taxpayers in Chicago probably don't even know they're giving Sara Lee all that money.
That's because Mayor Rahm Emanuel is snatching the cash from the shadows of the Tax Increment Financing treasure chest, which is one of those slush funds folks in Chicago still can't figure out.
So to help you keep track of all these slush funds...
This is not the water-sewer slush fund, which Mayor Emanuel and the City Council just fortified with at least $75 million in your water/sewer fees.
This is the slush fund intended to help poor people in poor communities that really need it.
But somehow it winds up helping rich people get richer.
Like the folks at Sara Lee.
Mayor Emanuel's giving them millions in exchange for moving 600 or so jobs from their facilities in Downers Grove to a building at 400 S. Jefferson.
Or, more to the point, Mayor Emanuel's taking property tax dollars from the schools, parks, county, etc and giving it to Sara Lee in exchange for moving those 600 employees to that building on South Jefferson.
Though when all is said and done who knows exactly how many jobs will wind up there. Because, let's face it, it's not like anyone in the city will be counting—a lesson we should have learned from that whole fiasco a few years back with Republic Windows and Doors.
And, just to be clear: Sara Lee's not promising to create new jobs with this handout. Oh, no, just the opposite. They're "cutting as much as half of its staff as it relocates between 500 and 650 employees to the city by early 2013," according to an article in the Tribune by Alejandra Cancino and Emily Bryson York.
Sooooo.....
You might say that Mayor Emanuel's rewarding Sara Lee for cutting those jobs with millions of tax dollars he's taking from the schoolchildren of Chicago.
Thank you, schoolchildren.
Like the mayor says, it's all about the Benjamins—I mean, the kids.
If you're feeling bad 'cause the mayor's not giving you a property-tax gift, head on over to the City Council chambers today for the Community Development Commission meeting at 1 PM.
There you can watch the mayoral-appointed body that oversees TIF deals rubber-stamp this baby while coming up with new and inventive praise for Mayor Emanuel and Sara Lee.
Best of all, the CDC show is free. Well, if you overlook that $5 million to $6.5 million....
Read more from Gift Week:
"Who wants to own Alot?" by Julia Thiel
"Shameless Joe," by Kate Schmidt
"When picking out gifts, don't do what Mo did," by Mick Dumke
"I'm that drip from the Bleader," by Michael Miner
"In Print: Chicago's Classic Restaurants: Past, Present and Future," by Mike Sula
"What will they think of next? Wood ties, of course," by Kevin Warwick
"Go right to the front of the line, you're special," by Kevin Warwick
Comments (14)
Showing 1-14 of 14
Speaking of job creators, Sara Lee previously shut down Best's Kosher located on Pershing, but I do think believe they sold the facility. 400 S Jefferson has been underutilized for decades as has the building due north across Van Buren, however, so I think that an argument for using TIF money can be made in this case.
http://www.bests-kosher.com/
Best’s Kosher, Sinai Kosher, Shofar and Wilno products will no longer be manufactured by Sara Lee Corporation.
We truly thank you for your patronage and loyalty over the years.
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Yes, giving the government more money will surely solve problems like this.
As we view this little theft of public funds, let's not forget another.
We now have to PAY $13 million to the company that's raping us for the next 75 years on the parking meter. Boy is this the gift that keeps giving, err, screwing taxpayers, residents and parkers in the City of Chicago.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/9398725-418/meter-company-sends-city-135-million-bill-for-disabled-parking.html
When I heard this, my first question was "I wonder if Sara Lee got subsidies when it moved to Downers Grove six years ago?"
One guess, first one doesn't count: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.p…
I'd be interested to know if any of these companies has made a racket out of moving from the city to the suburbs and back and collecting huge windfalls every time. Oh wait!
I wonder if I could get 1/500th of the amount we're throwing at Sara Lee if I were to move just one job (mine) into the Loop. I could sure use $10,000.
Wow, so Sara Lee gets $6 million but you can't find $3 million to save half our city's mental health clinics? You really are the Grinch who stole Clinics! See you tomorrow (and others please join us, 9am City Hall 2nd floor to carol to the mayor and council about their corporate giveaways and human needs takeaways.
What is it you hate about our free enterprise system and love about Communism? Why aren't your supporting your fellow Democrat party members? And why won't your rich Skokie parents give you trust fund money? Is it because they hate you and want you to be AN AMERICAN, GET OFF YOUR LAZY BUTT AND GET A JOB, YOU LAZY BUM?
sorta makes ya wonder just how bad things gotta get before we say the larder is bare when multibillion dollar corporations come knocking on the door hat in hand
who's up for looking at some recent results?
Net Income (52 weeks ending 7/2)
2011 $1,287,000,000
2010 $506,000,000
2009 $364,000,000
So the State pays them $5mil to move 400 more jobs to Illinois in 2006, then the City pays them $5.5 mil to get rid of 500 Illinois jobs 5 years later. How hard can it be to take $10.5 mil to net fire 100 people?
correct me if i'm wrong. but isn't the tif to help businesses in the community and the nif is to help the home owners. so what neighborhood is saralee in that he can use that money. was there a nif in place for the homeowners. or do the homeowners (in that particular ward) know of this.
I seem to recall hearing that the roughly 50% job cut at Sara Lee will be the result of its split into two companies. So there wouldn't actually be a job less of that amount. I would check with the link to the Tribune article but it actually goes instead to the Reader piece on the Republic Windows & Doors linked to in the previous paragraph.
Here is that Tribune article: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-12… It's not totally clear if there will be that amount of job losses but it does mention that the headquarters of the other company is moving to Europe, where most of its employees already work. So there would definitely be job losses in the Chicago area as a result of that. So Ben might be right of the gist of that.
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