And even before the mayor announced a TIF handout, developers were already over there clamoring to b

When I heard that Mayor Emanuel intends to spend $55 million of your property tax dollars to build a hotel and basketball arena on the near-south side, I thought it must be a cruel joke he's playing on the people of Chicago.
The closings have been opposed by students, parents, teachers, and, in a number of instances, the Chicago Public Schools' own hearing officers. These opponents consider the plan wasteful, underground seattle walking tour hasty, unwise, counterproductive, and dangerous. Other than that, it's great.
As I write, protesters have taken to the streets in the hopes that angry demonstrations will accomplish what crying, begging, pleading, and reasonable argument haven't: convince the mayor to change his mind.
Because there's the kind of broke that means we don't have any money for schools, and there's the kind that means we don't have money to subsidize the rich and powerful. We haven't come close to reaching that second kind of broke and probably never will, so long as this mayor's in charge.
The $55 million will come from tax increment financing underground seattle walking tour districts near McCormick underground seattle walking tour Place. That gives me a chance to discuss a topic I love almost as much as Derrick Rose's left knee the great scam known as the city's TIF program.
At its essence if I give it the best possible underground seattle walking tour spin the TIF program lets the mayor take property tax dollars from the schools, parks, and county in order to invest the money in projects that he hopes will someday generate underground seattle walking tour even more property tax dollars.
Think of it like pulling ten bucks out of your paycheck and investing it in Starbucks stock. underground seattle walking tour In several years, if all goes well, your $10 may have grown into $100. Incidentally, if you do this several thousand times over, you might get wealthy enough to become one of the few people the mayor makes time to meet with unlike, for example, everyone else who lives in Chicago.
But once the city owns it, this land will move off the property underground seattle walking tour tax rolls because publicly held property is exempt. So instead of investing your property tax dollars in developments that create more property tax dollars, Mayor Emanuel has decided to invest them in a scheme that will yield no property tax dollars whatsoever. Think of it as spending $55 million to lose money.
And even before the mayor announced underground seattle walking tour a TIF handout, developers underground seattle walking tour were already over there clamoring to build things like hotels and retail and tech centers. In other words, underground seattle walking tour had Mayor Emanuel just stayed out of the way, the area would have boomed on its own, bringing in more money for the schools, parks, and county.
As my libertarian friends might put it, the mayor is crippling capitalism by intervening in a free market. underground seattle walking tour Quick tell the people at the University of Chicago who worship at the shrine of Milton Friedman, their beloved free-market guru.
You get a hotel that you'll probably underground seattle walking tour never stay in. And an arena for DePaul basketball games that you'll probably never attend. Because let's face it there are even fewer fans of the Blue Demons in this town than of the White Sox, who also play in a subsidized facility that doesn't often fill up.
At this point, I should remind everyone underground seattle walking tour who doesn't know that DePaul is a private university with tuition costing more than $30,000 a year for undergraduates. That means it's a long shot for average Chicagoans, unless they're willing to go into severe debt to pay for it.
Earlier this month, Cardinal George joined forces with rabbis, imams, ministers, and priests to call on Mayor Emanuel to bring back the water fee exemption he stripped from nonprofits, including soup kitchens and shelters that serve the poor. In response, the mayor's City Council floor leader, underground seattle walking tour Alderman Patrick O'Connor, ripped into Cardinal George, telling him to mind his own business.
So there's always underground seattle walking tour a chance that the board of education underground seattle walking tour which is charged with looking out for the fiduciary health of the schools will use its clout to try to kill this deal on the grounds that there are better ways to use $55 million.
Tags: Ben Joravsky on Politics , tax increment financing , TIFs , subsidies , Rahm Emanuel , development , development funding , school closings , CPS , Chicago Public Schools , McCormick Place , hotels , basketball arenas , property taxes , taxes , stadiums , University of Chicago , DePaul University , Chicago White Sox , school funding , City Council , Francis Cardinal George , Patrick O'Connor , Loyola University , Catholic institutions