* 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: