Friday, October 30, 2009
Chicagoland / Politics Everyone's Talking TIFs
Posted by Whet Moser on Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 1:07 PM
* Eric Zorn has a good Q&A on the phaseout of the 7% property tax cap, which inevitably involves the TIF issue (here's an archive of the best of our ongoing TIF coverage).
* Alderman Tom Allen of the 38th Ward is making noise, and has a new term for tax-increment financing: OTF, or the "Over-tax fund." (A good start; I'll see what I can do.)
* CBS2 is reporting that Alderman Walter Burnett wants to use TIF money for homelessness: "you probably haven't heard about a billion dollar pot of money that some alderman now say could be a life-saver for people struggling to put a roof over their heads."
* WBEZ works Allen into a report on the budget crisis.
This is all very good, but we'll know we've hit saturation when RedEye picks up the torch. I'll even spot them a cover:
Showing 1-4 of 4
Love it. But you should demand royalties.
Ben, I want to thank you for staying on this point for years, when no one was listening.
It's interesting that nobody thought of helping the homeless when they were selling off the meters. Nobody thought of the homeless when TIFs were in their go-go hey day. In fact, some would argue that TIFs have helped displace some folks.
Now that TIFs and the parking meter fire sale are under scrutiny, it seems as if our political leaders want to make citizens accomplices after the fact. Afterall, it would be a little awkward to complain about these programs if the proceeds are being redirected to tax relief and emergency shelter for the homeless.
I hope our leaders can get beyond the gimmicks and do what is necessary to bring about the necessary reforms to the taxing, financial and budgeting system.
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