According to Cook County clerk David Orr, in the last year alone $660 million in property taxes went into tax increment financing (TIF) districts.
Tag: tax increment financing
Posted inBlogs
We need a citywide hearing for the Lincoln Yards project
Sterling Bay has big plans for the 70 acres they’re developing along the Chicago.
Posted inBlogs
Father Pfleger, top cop Johnson, and a tinge of hope for the city’s future
Police superintendent Eddie Johnson and Father Michael Pfleger teaming up, as they did walking arm in arm down the Dan Ryan last week, could help us fight the city’s inequities.
Posted inBlogs
The pattern to Rahm’s sexual predator, filthy schools, and special ed scandals
If anything points to the need for an elected CPS school board that’s independent of the mayor, this is it.
Posted inBlogs
Special education kids fight for scraps as city touts shiny new developments
Who wants to bet there will be plenty of public money for soccer stadiums and upscale communities, but not enough for the students?
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Trump cuts food stamps while looking for a handout for his hotel in Mississippi
And other recent acts in the season of hypocrisy
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Five unfortunate civic traits that make Chicago Bezos bait
Gullibility, docility, and more characteristics that should help convince Jeff Bezos to bring Amazon’s second headquarters to town.
Posted inColumns & Opinion
If Mayor Rahm really wanted to stop poor people from leaving Chicago, he’d stop giving TIF handouts to corporations
Instead another TIF deal benefits benefits a downtown building instead of neighborhoods in need.
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Chris Kennedy got it right: people of color are being pushed out of Chicago intentionally
The gubernatorial candidate nailed the whole point of Mayors Daley and Emanuel’s economic development programs.
Posted inBlogs
The activists and the aldermen: The #NoCopAcademy campaign’s crash course in Chicago civics
After a City Council setback, the #NoCopAcademy campaign reflects on strategy—and aldermen on both sides of the issue respond.
Posted inBlogs
John Oliver nails why Amazon’s HQ2 would be bad for Chicago
The Last Week Tonight host tells the world what Chicagoans have known for years: cities are wasting billions on corporate welfare in the name of “jobs, jobs, jobs.”
Posted inBlogs
Chicago officials take a page from Trump playbook to justify Navy Pier TIF ‘shell game’
The Emanuel administration’s explanation for how $55 million wound up paying for Navy Pier renovations sounds like gobbledygook from the presidential administration.
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Chicago’s TIF scam might be even more crooked than we thought
The city’s TIFs will generate a record $561 million this tax year. Which means more money for the mayor to sneakily divert into vanity projects like Navy Pier.
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Rahm’s obsession with downtown development isn’t really about fostering neighborhood growth
The mayor’s new Neighborhood Opportunity Fund throws small entrepreneurs a few crumbs—but the program is a lot of PR hokum.
Posted inColumns & Opinion
The economic causes of Chicago’s violence
The city continues to pursue policies that advance inequity.