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A complete, utter disaster

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Illinois

* Mark Brown takes a crack at writing about TIF district spending today, which he calls Chicago’s “hidden tax increase”…

Instead of flowing though the normal channels, where the [tax receipt] money would be split among the city, Board of Education, Park District, City Colleges and Cook County, the city gets to keep the TIF funds in a separate pile that can be spent at the mayor’s direction and without even showing up in the city’s budget.

The money goes for a variety of purposes, some undoubtedly worthwhile, some questionable. Much of the money goes toward subsidies for the developers within the ever-expanding TIF districts.

* And how much are we talking about?

“We’ve now TIFed 30 percent of the land area of the city,” he continues, pointing out that the $400 million in TIF spending exceeds the entire budget of the Department of Streets and Sanitation. […]

The $400 million is also more money than the oft-maligned Cook County government receives in total annually from property taxes.

Yikes. Go read the whole thing.

* And then there’s this tidbit…

An Associated Press analysis released on Tuesday shows that, on average, Illinoisans paid $9,336 in federal taxes in 2005 and got $6,328 back. That amounts to 68 cents on the dollar.

* Meanwhile, Mayor Daley’s tax hike plans aren’t going over too well. The Tribune editorializes today…

[Daley’s] proposed 2008 budget would increase city spending by 5.7 percent — a far bigger boost than most Chicago households and businesses can anticipate for their own spending next year.

The mayor seems to blame his workforce’s wage and benefits increases for those higher costs. As if the increases in personnel costs that he approved were imposed on him by some unseen dictator.

* And while Daley and Cook County Board President Todd Stroger talk about raising taxes, the General Assembly still has a full plate…

Senate President Emil Jones moved to boost the size of a key property tax break for Cook County homeowners Wednesday, putting in play new legislation aimed at settling the festering issue.

The movement came as Mayor Richard Daley unveiled a new city budget that would be balanced by a hefty increase in Chicago’s property taxes, placing even more pressure on lawmakers to keep the county break alive.

* And…

Democrats in the Illinois Senate are preparing to restore at least some of the money cut from the state budget by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

However, senators said Wednesday it will not be anything close to the $424 million in restorations approved by the House last week.

Sen. Donne Trotter, D-Chicago, said Senate Democrats are working on reinstating about $50 million of the $463 million cut from the fiscal 2008 budget. A detailed list of what might be restored was not available Wednesday.

“There will be some restorations of some of the reductions,” Trotter said. “We are still looking at some of the things we need to do that were inadvertently done. There’s been some reassessments.”

* And…

As the General Assembly continued its fall veto session, Chicago area transit officials on Wednesday braced for the grim prospect of a continuing stalemate over transit funding.

Already burned by unfulfilled promises of long-term help from Springfield, CTA President Ron Huberman refused on Wednesday to slam the door on yet another bailout but warned that delays in approving new transit funding would result in service cuts and fare hikes in January that will “scare a lot of people.”

* More…

* Daley’s call for record property tax hike stuns aldermen

* Daley’s proposed tax hikes have residents worried

* Daley seeks big tax hike

* Local group hopes for veto overrides

* School districts sweat out wait about property taxes

* New CTA doomsday plan more grim

* Chicago Public Radio: CTA’s 2008 budget delayed

* CTA Tattler: The doomiest of Doomsdays

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 9:22 am

Comments

Mayor Daley’s game is wearing thin. How can he continue to point the finger at leaders in Springfield when his leadership in Chicago is failing? I’m so tired of hearing about doomsday scenarios for the CTA. Why should downstate pay for Chicago’s problems? Why doesnt the mayor dip into that Skyway money he got to prevent the fare increases? What is that $1 billion + being used for anyway? He could easily move some of that money to the CTA and doomsday would go away.

Come on Mayor. Stop the games.

Comment by Anon Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 9:32 am
The Republicans must be loving this: with all these tax increases at once, the Dems are throwing the GOP a lifeline to pull themselves out of their self-dug hole come 2008. If they don’t saturate the airwaves with anti-tax ads then they really are the people stupid enough to run Alan Keyes for senator.

Comment by lake county democrat Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 9:38 am
Dem Dumb Dumb Dumb Dem….I am a Dem and I ready to just do anything to hit the reboot button the the state and county governments. As a former resident of the city, I’ll leave it to current residents to comment on city tax issues. If you ask me, we really need new leadership in the mansion (oops, he’s never there), senate, house and in Cook County. Can’t we get a do-over on the last couple elections?

Comment by Niles Township Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 9:43 am
The TIF system is overused and abused. Municipalities and developers funnel up to 23 years of future tax monies (or more if extended legislatively) to fund infrastructure within the TIF District. The munis control the expenditures of TIF funds and are often the beneficiary of the funds. The developers benefit off the backs of school districts and other taxing bodies. The school children and the taxpayers lose again.
The TIF statute should be curtailed to only the most blightest areas.

Comment by Jake From Elwood Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 9:47 am
The Illinois TIF statute stipulates that the area must be blighted and that development would not occur “but for” use of the TIF. The statute appears well-written but enforcement of it is lax to say the least.

Why should the Central Loop TIF be extended? Is it really still a blighted area where no one would develop without subsidies? Same with the new LaSalle St. TIF.

Comment by Independent Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 9:57 am
This is all very exciting isn’t it?

50 years after “Atlas Shrugged” was published debunking Marxism, Socialism and providing the world with a proven moral basis for Capitalism and the Free Market - 25 years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall - 12 years after President Clinton announced that “the era of big government is over” - the Illinois Democratic Party decided to clearly demonstrate why their core political economic beliefs don’t work in the real world!

The writing on the wall has been there for so darn long, it is nearly faded.

If the so-called Communists in China took over, they would do a better job recreating the business success we need in Illinois than the Illinois Democratic Party can.

You know those ignorant cracker red states that we were raised to laugh at? Well - guess what? THEY HAVE EATEN OUR LUNCH. Banking? Charlotte North Carolina. High Tech? Which Texas city would you like? Industry? Hello China!

While all the wanna-have were busy divving up our pie for their free slice, the rest of the world caught up with us and look far more attractive than we do now. We are quickly becoming “has-beens” in the global market, aren’t we?

Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 10:08 am
The youthful Ron seems to take a childlike (well, he is rather young) glee in coming out with ever more dramatic CTA “doomsday” scenarios. So many, that we can perhaps be forgiven for skipping over them our newspapers and tuning out the media broadcasts.

CTA unions have been rather quiet on all this. So have CTA brass in their luxurious downtown Chicago headquarters. They know they don’t have to worry.
In the end, the taxpayers will get plucked, not they.

Comment by Cassandra Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 10:18 am
Rich and others,

This is more related to yesterday’s fiscal mess thread, but state budget projectors should also keep an eye on ethanol requirements. As the WSJ highlights today, the movement is losing some supoprt in Congress after (surprise!) higher input prices led to higher end-product (food) prices. The price of ethanol has weakened, and further drops certainly wouldn’t be good for farm revenues or farm real estate valuations. Gotta be a net negative for IL if ethanol collapses…

Comment by Greg Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 10:23 am
I really wish someone would do a comparison of City budgets from when the Mayor was first elected to now. You will see hundreds of new management positions and titles. If there were organizational charts you would find several new layers of managers reporting to new managers. Deputy commissioners reporting to other deputies. In a word a “waste”.
Tons of new Assistant Commissioners, Managing Deputy Commissioners ect. They cut the budget on the backs of the unions via privatization and loaded the payroll with Shakman exempt politically connected managers and clerical positions.

Before any tax increases, the City needs to cut the unnecessary positions. I thought the Mayor just announced an expensive study of the budget to find inefficiencies in City government.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to expedite the study and cut the government waste before raising taxes?

Comment by Garp Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 11:07 am
Although it’s an arcane subject, TIFs are out of control. Obviously there are good TIFs and abusive TIFs. I heard Joe Morre make reference to an unnecessary LaSalle Street TIF on Chicago Tonight last evening. It should be obvious to anyone that LaSalle Street can take care of itself without any TIF incentives. Kudos to Quigley for his lonely crusade agaisnt abuse of TIFs.

Mayor Daley needs to cut his budget/reduce expenditures. But I have to concede that despite the problems with corruption, the city is much better managed than county government.

Comment by Captain America Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 11:24 am
Captain America, can you think of anything managed worse than Cook County? Honestly, I’m really trying right now and I’ve got nothing. Maybe the Cubs (not Lou, but Hendry for bringing back Trachsel).

Comment by Gene Parmesan Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 11:42 am
Sen. Donne Trotter says the Senate might restore some of the governor’s vetos–I thought Sen. president Jones wouldn’t allow any votes on anything, no way no how…is Trotter clueless, or is there a deal to make some small set of agreed-on nocontroversial fixes?

Comment by Muskrat Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 12:01 pm
Daley Plays the “Detroit” Card

“You have to make a decision. If you want to move the city forward, you do it. If you don’t, you stand still. Other cities have cut basic services back. Other cities stood still, and look what happened to them. . . . This city is not going to stand still,” Daley said. [in the Sun-Times]

Comment by Hugh Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 12:17 pm
> I really wish someone would do a comparison of City budgets from when the Mayor was first elected to now. You will see hundreds of new management positions and titles.

It’s hard to remember Daley was first elected on a platform of trimming waste, he was to be a hands-on, business-manager Mayor. Instead his record is one of greatly increasing City bureaucracy, including creating whole new depts, including Planning & Development, Construction & Permits, Business Affairs, most recently a new Office of Compliance… He has attempted to privatize some of the mission of his Streets and San and Police depts, union-busting while he’s at it, but he raises property taxes to do it! (the City’s “special services area” program)

Comment by Hugh Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 12:34 pm
As an ex-Chicagoan, I am very happy in rural farmland with a brutal 5 minute drive to work. What is the real cost of operating the transit systems? Charging $2-$3 for a ride that costs $4.25 will never win no matter what the volume. Something has to give and none of it is pleasent. Seems there are only 3 options. One, cut costs through eliminating positions and routes as has been discussed. Duh. Second, get money through some tax method or use that Skyway money. And when will the ego battles allow that to happen? Third, raise rates. Our company is seeing 6% costs increases every year. The CTA/RTA/Pace has to be seeing the exact same operational increases. It is great for politicians to praise minimum wage increases, health insurance coverage and what ever, but that comes with a rreal cost somewhere. Just as McDonalds has simply raised that quarter pounder meal about $1, every other company adjusts their costs. Locally, the union trades are scheduled for salary increases next spring. Why? Cost of living. Shocking. So why should the CTA/RTA/PACE groups be exempt from rate increases to cover their cost increases? If you use it, pay for it through rates or taxes.

Comment by zatoichi Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 2:04 pm
TIFS are out of control they remove tax dollars from the budget leaving no choice but to raise taxes. Daley getsto give TIF dollars to his buddy developers and the average tax payer is left paying a higher tax bill. There is an incredible lack of oversite into how TIF dollars are spent. If Daley wants new libraries or anything else he can use TIF money but he wants to rip more money from the taxpayer. TIFS need to be investigated there is no reason to raise taxes the money is already there daley just moved it into tif accounts that he can do almost anything he wants with.

Comment by FED UP Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 2:37 pm
King Richard II said today he is “insulted” that people are bellyaching about all his proposed tax increases. Don’t you know the penalty for insulting the king? Off with their heads!

Comment by The Mad Hatter Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 3:17 pm
Little Richie Putin does not like any disagreement. He knows what is best for everyone just as Castro knows what is best for his people. The privledged, the rich Gigi types, and the trough dwellers will hoist him on their shoulders while the poor neighborhood slobs just have to dig deeper and pay the bills. If you make too much trouble maybe the police SOS squad will show up at your door or even Burge might be called back to duty. The print press in Chicago does not know what responsible journalism is, if they did they would never criticize anything that the little thug says or does. He will not let Chicago stand still he will build 10 new libraries and continue to squander our hard earned tax dollars. I never thought I would live to see the day!

Comment by wallace Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 5:23 pm
As long as the media report on ‘budget shortfalls’ rather than grotesque government overspending, the Daley’s of this world will have won half the battle. Local government, drunk from huge increases in real estate tax receipts from historic increases in home values, have doubled and tripled in size in the last two decades. They now expect us to expect that size as being the norm and lavish retirement and medical benefits to their patronage armies our responsibility. This while schools continue to fail, police continue to be corrupt, and county and city work forces stuffed with cousins, nephews, in laws, and spouses of mayors and county board commissioners.

A faint hope of an independent press awakened by Daley’s rapaciousness pounding out the reality of overspending is all that stands between he and everybody’s pocketbook.

Comment by walter sobchak Thursday, Oct 11, 07 @ 6:58 pm
Lets see who is up on their Chicago TIF law!

1. The State requires a pre-creation report on why the TIF is necessary and what it is to achieve. True or false? TRUE

2. Which bests describes the City’s duty to monitor and follow up to the State on TIF performance in accord with the report described in Question 1?

a. Every 5 years.
b. Every 10 years.
c. Never.
d. Who cares?

Answer: c.

3. Which City officials are responsible to engaged in ongoing public oversight of the TIF program?

a. Mayor Daley.
b. No one.
c. City Council.
d. Public oversight? What are you, a troublemaker?

Answer: b.

4. How are Chicago TIF revenues to be spent?

a. Build new libraries.
b. Renovate factories that mysteriously turn into private condo development projects.
c. However the Mayor feels like it.
d. Didn’t I warn you about asking questions?

Answer: c.

5. The benefits to the citizens of Chicago stemming from the TIF program are:

a. Supplemental income to keep other taxes low.
b. We only have to lease the Skyway - right now.
c. Unknown.
d. OK smart guy, take th

Comment by Anon Friday, Oct 12, 07 @ 2:24 am