The Blog

Tif THIS, you big meanie!

So Ben is sock-puppeting his own blog now....?

OPEN BOOK June 20th - 12:31 p.m. The word on the strrets is Alderman Banks walked a criminal out of lockup,after being charged with a felony gun possession charge, BEFORE the thug was even processed. The Thug had a weapon with a filed off serial number,and the barrel and groove of the gun was altered to prevent identification. Do made men have clout beyond the average garden vaeiety criminal?

Barack Obama June 20th - 12:34 p.m. Hey Fritchey and Daley take care of this shit or you will cost me the election...................... MAYBE IT WAS A MISTAKE TO MAKE CHICAGO MY ELECTION HEADQUARTERS

I wish people would FINALLY start paying attention to the TIF issue, it's just absurd.

Why are these same stupid posts going up on threads that they have no relation to? These boards are becoming juvenile and useless and that's a shame.

Maybe some are preaching to the choir

What about the Pilsen TIF?

TIF! TIF! TIF! Whats the big deal? Ben Jagoffsky should just give it up! Mayor Daley put my husband on the RTA board and I will prtect my clout, the mayor at all cost!

Sorry, Ben, but "TIFs For Tots" is flat wrong in its basic explanation of how a TIF works. It is absolutely not true that "A TIF allows poor neighborhoods to keep more of their tax money..." Even if we assume that Verwymeren meant to write, "the property owners in a neighborhood," a TIF district has no effect whatsoever on how much tax a neighborhood--or the property owners therein--pays or keeps. If the taxpayers in a TIF kept "more of their tax money" then the Mayor wouldn't have it to put into his "slush fund," would he? So if you're right about TIFs being a "slush fund," they can't work the way Verwymeren says they do. Have you and/or Adam ever actually read the TIF Act?

"Have you and/or Adam ever actually read the TIF Act?" Have you? If so, feel free to explain your understanding of it. Be specific. Be thorough. Be rigorous. And, above all, be honest, if you can.

"Why are these same stupid posts going up on threads that they have no relation to? These boards are becoming juvenile and useless and that's a shame." The shame is that you've got nothing more valuable to post than complaining about the lack of intelligent comments, all the while posting nothing that's not already obvious to all. Read the article(s), consider what's being said and share your opinion(s). What, pray tell, is stopping you?

" ... a TIF district has no effect whatsoever on how much tax a neighborhood--or the property owners therein--pays or keeps." the Fundamental Lie of TIF keep repeating it, maybe it will become true if earmarking property taxes for a particular project truly had no effect on rest of the tax burden then we would truly have discovered how to grow money on trees, we could wipe out poverty, cure cancer, and have a limitless source of non-polluting, renewable energy

every TIF district raises taxes - inside & outside the district a TIF is an earmark you can't take a slice out of a pie w/o having less pie, even if you are a TIF expert

Ben should realize nobody cares about TIFS. People are so in debt they can not look past their own personal situation! It is legal and immoral, just like Daley!Deep Water!

I ,like most people, do care about TIF's. The problem is , who do you complain to. The Mayor has no opposition at this time. The Alderman are just high priced workers for the Mayor.Your State Rep.? , Your State Senator?Everyone in this town is on the make! What can we do ?

Vote for Daley, lose your pension. Chicago is now Broke! Please read this article by Fran Spielman. Looks like Daley has mismanaged the City of Chicago so long, he wants to cut pensions. Working for the public sector is not all fun and games. The problem is Daley's friends working a short amount of time and getting a large pension. Daley has not stopped the practice of people receiving multiple pensions. Mark my words, Daley has a pal or family member that will pop up after the 401 pension is awarded. Millions more for Daley friends and family machine hacks. Daley packed the Unions with his goons and now wants to fill the White House with one of his boys. Who was that goon on Daley's Pension Board with mob ties? Patrick McDonough Continue reading "Vote for Daley, lose your pension. Chicago is now Broke

Current workers will not lose their pensions. New workers will not get as generous a pension as current workers like myself will get that is based on earning 2.4% percent of salary for every year worked, maxing out at 75% of last four years average salary (we can retire at age 55 with full pension if you started at age 25 - SWEET). New workers will have a 401K, which is no where near as nice. Sorry, thats the way the ball bounces. At least mine is good as gold.

Look into Rob O'Connor and the TIFs. Orion, yours may not be as good as gold if you can't pay for them. The pension debt is huge in all areas of government.

There may be a time where we can't pay the pensions.

I grow tired of the false mantra that Chicago is better under Daley. 1. There was an urban resurgence renewal nationwide with New York, Los Angeles, and even Cleveland getting makeovers, less crime, innovative policies. The New York renewal was much more dramatic and change from the status qou under than Mayor Guliani. 2. Daley (like Clinton) inherited through no work of his own: a) a strong stock market partially due to b) the 90s internet and tech growth some in the form of a bubble. Some say that it is because of the internet (which the Department of Defense "invented") and the fiscal policies under Reagan and the economic growth already started under Bush I--I am not certain if that was true but it is interesting to discuss. 3. What is UNIQUE, SPECIAL, DIFFERENT that Mayor Daley did not only compared to other cities as mentioned in #1 above but also compared if (I guess at least theoretically or academic) there was a MAYOR Washington did not die or Sawyer continued on as Mayor or Eddie Vrdolyak Dick Mell Don Haider Bernie Epton Tim Evans Ed Kelly Ed Burke Tom Hynes or any host of other candidates. Many of the ideas that Daley gets credit for were from others flower pots from the late Netsch or Navy Pier from Jane Byrne or the Vietnam Memorial etc. 4. Daley has been the most corrupt Mayor since William Thompson and the Capone era with insider deals and stealing that is bigger than ever in the history of any city on the planet (maybe absent some gulf oil state) Tim Degnan and the jobs and construction deals and trucking. Jeremiah Joyce and McDonalds, Haagen Daaz, O'Hare airport, the Cable deal etc Walsh Construction, McDonough construction, the Hanleys, the Duffs, and now onto international deal and higher end finance in Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns like Bill Daley, Patrick Daley, Vanecko etc. And that is just the Irish from the 11th and the 19th wards. All no bid, and not doing a good job, and obscene profits, no competition, sweetheart deals--let alone the mob connected guys like Tommy DiPiazza, Freddie Barbera, Michael Marchese (buying land for a dollar), the Bridgeport Village scandal, Hired Trucks, Mike Tadin etc. 5. The Hiring Scandal goes deeper than just patronage or getting a precinct captain or somebody's cousin a job it goes to: a) that Daley lied and said it was a fair system and there were applications, and tests and interviews and Daley lied and it was a farce and b) Daley did not reward the people who helped him and many people got hurt or cut out so that Daley could consolidate power so the rules of reward by politics were broken which is why there was not more of a defense of Sorich and Slattery or that HDO is so hated insofar as mostly 11 and 19 were taken care of and primarily one ethnic group--Irish. 6. Chicago has for most of Daley's tenure as Mayor (with the exception of maybe 2 years out of almost 20 so for 17 years or so and 18 next year) been the murder capitol of the US (and maybe the world outside war zones and certainly the murder capitol of the western industrialized world) of any measurement including percentage and/or pure numbers. This with Daley's crying about gun control constantly and defending police scandals that included police under his leadership hiring other police to kill other police and police running drug rings and supposedly in the past but including in his tenure as State's Attorney and briefly as Mayor for the 1st two terms or less allegations of torture and not guilty death row inmates (many of whom were career criminals anyway) who had their testicles electrocuted. 7. If you are monarchist or fascist than it doesn't matter but if Democracy is important than Daley is the worst example of a dictatorship and not caring about the will of the people than any Mayor in the United States (at least any major city) with no term limits (as have New York and Los Angeles), with unconstitutionally high signature requirements (25,000 which is 5 times higher than governor), strange voting machines with serious questions, and a politically connected election department including the late mother in law of the 11th ward alderman and politically connected lawyer Langdon Neal who makes tens of millions off of government with real estae especially the much abused eminent domain. Daley ripping up Meigs Field (COL McCormick was turning over in his grave), his rants aganst Alderman Fioretti, Joe More, and Brendan Riely are sick, unprofessional and shows Daley has no class. If you dig deep into the past of Daley (which the media gives a pass besides maybe occassionally Tim Novak of the Sun Times or John Kass of the Tribune) there are stories of the Fireman Quinn being the bagman and the Daleys pushing out the girlfriend and having Quinn sign everything over on his deathbed. The Daley investment into the Nuclear plants that ComEd bought out raised some eyebrows never to be thought of again. Richie Daley failing the bar exam and Vrdolyak bragging he got it fixed with Cecil Partee. Allegations about the personal life of Bill Daley. John Daley marrying the daughter of mobster and bookie Mary Lou Briatta and John Daley getting all the Hired Truck insurance and much other insurance but he had his insurance exam fixed that he could not pass it. Michael Daley at Daley and George on so many Chicago deals. Patrick Daley and his cousin Vanecko on the MSS (and other) deals or the past with the incident in Michigan where the kid went to the hospital after being baseball batted Bridgeport style (the same type of behavior which got Frankie Caruso--Tootsie Babes son a felony attempted murder) and other allegations of violence that have been covered up--but all you get is Sneed articles about how handsome Patrick Daley is or Bill Daleys birthday or how he is so great at some investment bank that would never allow any other John Marshall grad and bar failer. Daley is corrupt, petty, mean spirited and lacks class. Chicago is a great city in spite of Daley, and not because of him

One of the biggest lies is Daley's punk ass son. He claims his son went to war ,and Daley is viewed pinning medals on Pat Daley. In reality Patrick Daley never went to war. He has remained Stateside. Patrick Daley never went overseas. Pat Daley is as big a fraud as his father,whom never passed the bar exam. The only thing Patrick Daley is known for, is hitting some Asian boy from behind with a basball bat. Father like son. An apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Every law you break Every move you make For the land at stake If the park you take We'll be watching you! Every single day Every vote you sway Every lie you say Every term you stay We'll be watching you! Grant Park must be Open clear and free City hearts just ache With every dig you make Every law you break Every move you make For the land at stake If the park you take We'll be watching you! When parkland's gone, it's lost without a trace Protect our green; don't develop one more space It's ours, not yours and its land you can't replace Give up this scheme; it's the depths of your disgrace We keep crying Daley, Daley please . . . Grant Park must be Open clear and free City hearts just ache With every dig you make Every law you break Every move you make For the land at stake If the park you take We'll be watching you! Every law you break Every move you make We'll be watching you! There is no hole where we won't go, to find and try you. So man on five you are hereby on notice.

Who rehired the Quarter Man? Daley, Daley. Whose blue bags are in my garbage can? Daley, Daley. Who TIFFED the Loop, tho there is no blight? Who wrecked Meigs in the middle of the night? Daley, Daley, Daley. Who gave the Duffs the black man's share? Daley, Daley. Who gave the Joyces all of O'Hare? Daley, Daley. Who gives the lakefront parks away? Who set the table for the Clout Cafe? Daley, Daley, Daley. Whose IG never saw any crime? Daley, Daley. Who begged Sorich to do his time? Daley, Daley. Who didn't know that he hired his son? Who is the Mayor whose day is done? Daley, Daley, Daley.

Well?

Funny how this post has become a sounding board for TIFs and not one comment has been about the cartoon itself. I almost wonder if any of the commenters even looked at it. Great job, Adam!