Thursday, July 30, 2009
Chicagoland / Politics How to fix a looming city budget apocalypse in two easy links
Posted by Whet Moser on Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 7:32 PM
Sun-Times: "Chicago has a $519.7 million budget shortfall in 2010"
Progress Illinois: "As we recently pointed out, a document released by the city last month shows that Daley’s 150-plus TIF districts ended 2008 with $1 billion in aggregate unspent funds."
Acronym you won't find in either the Sun-Times's or the Trib's articles on the 2010 shortfall: TIF.
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TIF money is supposed to be for capital. It's simply not a good idea to blow capital dollars to fill an operating budget gap. A good capital investment provides value for years, while the operating budget gap would just be closed for just one year.
It would be better to re-evaluate some TIF's and determine that some no longer need to be TIF's (e.g. LaSalle St), and roll those particular tax revenues back into the operating budget.
Not that Chicago gets this right all the time, but capital dollars should be spent on things that increase revenue or decrease costs or increase service without increasing net operating losses.
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