Daley siphoned millions of dollars from fund for blighted neighborhoods to give to giant corps

[Hannah Bell]

Corporate Giants Received TIF Money, Records Show

During the mayoral campaign, Chicagoans heard a great deal about tax increment financing, including frequent criticism that the program, Mayor Richard M. Daley’s favorite economic development tool, gave big tax breaks to downtown businesses and left neighborhoods short.

An analysis of public records by ChicagoTalks, a news Web site produced by Columbia College Chicago, shows that TIF subsidies benefited dozens of profitable companies — many of them in Chicago’s thriving downtown — while little money went to struggling, outlying neighborhoods. South Lawndale and Auburn-Gresham, for example, received no subsidies over the last decade.

The TIF program was designed to eradicate blight, add jobs and spur economic growth. It supports public and private sector projects including infrastructure, parks, schools and corporate subsidies. Of the $1.2 billion designated for private sector projects since 2000, nearly half was earmarked for some of the area’s most profitable corporations. City officials approved financing for Quaker Oats, CareerBuilder, UPS, Target and Jewel-Osco, among others.

United Airlines, for example, was allotted about $31 million in TIF money. Mike Trevino, an airline spokesman, said the company was expected to employ more than 3,100 people in Chicago because of the subsidies. Mr. Trevino acknowledged that about 600 of those jobs were transferred from Elk Grove Village.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/us/27cnctif.html


At the same time, Mayor Daley had his appointed schools chiefs (Arne Duncan and Ron Huberman during the height of the TIFs; now Terry Mazany) claiming that the school system had huge "deficits" (and, among other things, had to cut back on payments into the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund) and had to make draconian cuts. To take just one example, the elimination of more than 1,300 teachers and additional non-teachers during the summer of 2010 would have been completely unnecessary had the TIF dollars been available to the public schools, thereby forcing the Board to stop claiming it has the "deficit" it claimed. On June 15, 2010, the Board set the stage for the massive layoffs by declaring a "fiscal emergency" based on Huberman's "deficit" claims.


http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=2081§ion=Article

[OHdem10]

1. This Chicagoans' taxes at work. Corporate Welfare is standard

practice. Too many drank the Reagan Kool Aid.

I would have no problem with Corporate Welfare if
there was an attitude of fairness. To assist a business
one business requires millions and even billions. The
Republican Party acts as if they begrudge any assistance
to the poor.

At the national level, Business receive all kinds of assistance.
In 2003, the Republicans passed a "Jobs" Bill, really corporate
welfare. 139 Billion. with a B. Jobs were created in Tehran,
China Asia and S.America. Corporate Welfare using our taxpayer
monies. I just remember this because it was a bill that
contained nothing but Corporate Welfare. Billions have
used since then.

When it comes to the budget. Cut the Social Safety Net, SS
Medicare and Medicaid. "We cannot afford these programs"
is the Republican Battle Cry. Just this week they voted
to large oil Company Subsidies in place.

Again I have no problem in helping companies if there can
be fairness in how citizens are treated.

[Rex]

2. Holyshit!

I just realized that Willam Daley is Richards brother! So one ran JP Morgan like a pirate in open waters and the other made sure Chicago corporations got the fiver and little Timmy got a farthing...sometimes.

Wow, just wow.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. So, Obama's Chief of Staff

is probably no improvement over the last Chief of Staff.

That "hopey changey stuff" gets grimmer and grimmer.

:hi:

[madrchsod]

5. he`s worse

[madrchsod]

4. people in chicago have known this for years but never had the proof

and now they do.

[mopinko]

7. there has actually been plenty of reporting on this.

most people now do understand. lots of people see the value.

[xchrom]

6. recommend

[mopinko]

8. this is full of half truths and facile conclusions.

the reason that jewel-osco, for instance, got tif money was because you cannot have a thriving neighborhood without access to food. food deserts still exist in chicago, but tif money is one way to attract a good store. i suspect that both the jewel and the target money went, at least in part, to the south loop area. this was a big stretch of abandoned industrial property that is now a thriving, tax paying neighborhood. much of the money goes to pay for infrastructure, like sewers and streets that need to be built along with a store.
boeing's money likely came when they were lured to chicago. they needed a downtown headquarters to replace the one that they were leaving. that was price for the really good jobs that came here. and yes, it is downtown. most of the people who work downtown take their paychecks home to their neighborhoods at night.
in my neighborhood, tif money has been used to keep rental housing affordable. it has also built schools, libraries and new police and fire stations.
and on and on.

to say that tifs are daley's favorite tools implies that there are others he could use. in point of fact, really, there are not. the mayors before daley had only the jawbone to offer. they had no choice but to watch as jobs and citizens bled away. under daley the city has grown and prospered. we have weathered the last 2 years in much better shape than most places.

sorta frosts my cookies to see chicago slammed in this way. this is complex, and this article makes it sound simple. always not enlightening.

[BR_Parkway]

12. +1

[Wait Wut]

13. Thanks for the factcheck.

It makes me nuts that I can't research anything from work. Having folks like you around to do it for me keeps me from spending the rest of my day with a headache.

As a former Chicagoan, I agree with you 110% on Daley. I survived a lot of crap mayors in my city and thanked the Democratic God for Daley on a regular basis.

Crap. Now I'm homesick. Say "hey" to everyone for me. :cry:

[Hannah Bell]

15. it is simple. half the money went to huge profitable corporations, & that's a fact.

"you suspect".

your suspicions count for nothing. show me the confirmatory evidence.

[xchrom]

9. Kick

[Starry Messenger]

10. k&r

[Tatiana]

11. Most importantly, these TIF districts are taking $$$ away from the public schools!

They have millions to give to Quaker and Jewel-Osco, but nothing for the public school system. They wouldn't have such a budget deficit at CPS (Chicago Public Schools) if they would fund us properly.

[mopinko]

14. except that the money does go to schools. its called

capital improvement. tif money goes to build new schools, and daley has built and improved many, many schools. in my neighborhood alone there are 3 new schools, plus major additions to 2 more. plus a new park with a fitness center, and a new fire station. the busiest fire station in the city was replaced with a state of the art leeds silver building (like almost everything that daley has built.) with new training facilities. this is not strictly in my hood, but just down the street about a mile.
yes, they give money to big businesses. and the big businesses build factories and corporate headquarters that bring good jobs. not mc jobs. good jobs. this goes on everywhere these days. without the tiff funds those jobs would go somewhere else.
before daley and the tifs there were NO tools available for economic development. the city was rotting. anyone who could leave mostly did leave. now people are moving back.
daley has spent the tif money wisely. i am very sorry to see him go.

[Hannah Bell]

16. no, half the money went to profitable corporations.

chicago's population peaked in 1950.

it lost population 2000-2010.

1930 3,376,438 25.0%
1940 3,396,808 0.6%
1950 3,620,962 6.6%
1960 3,550,404 −1.9%
1970 3,366,957 −5.2%
1980 3,005,072 −10.7%
1990 2,783,726 −7.4%
2000 2,896,016 4.0%
2010 2,695,598 −6.9%

[mopinko]

17. surely you know that raw numbers do not always provide

an adequate analysis of a situation as complex as a big city. there has been a huge influx in upper middle class people, many who went to the suburbs to raise their kids and are now coming back. plus fewer and fewer people feeling the need to move to the burbs because of the huge improvements and expanded choice in the public schools. these are people who have a lot of money to spend and to be taxed on.

likely many former blue collar workers live here because the jobs have left. we still make a lot of things here, we just do it with less unskilled labor. but that money that went to "profitable companies" did not go into their bank accounts. it went into infrastructure to help keep good jobs here. sewers and roads, but also streetscapes and beautification projects.
1% for art applies to these projects. damn few other cities support their artistic community like we do. some of those downtown big projects were things like ford buying an old theater facing the wrecking ball, saved by the city investing with ford to make it happen. a thriving downtown theater district is another part of ritchie daley's legacy. these tif fund get leveraged into the right kind of economic development. before we just watched our architectural legacy crumble.

really hb, you cannot judge the rightness or wrongness of the use of these funds without any discussion about what the money was spent on. you can't just say it went to a profitable company and think that is the end of it. ask what they did for that money, and what the taxpayers ended up with in the end. cuz you know what that is? we got a thriving city built the democrat way.

[Rex]

18. You both are presenting facts, just for an opposite outcome.

And that will never work out.

[mopinko]

19. well, i do live in chicago........

[Rex]

20. So, that doesn't make you an expert on social-economic systems

Many people live in big cities and understand nothing about the underlying systems in place that run everything. From what you posted, it sounds like you know what you are talking about, just pointing out you both will never reach a consensus.

[mopinko]

22. oh, i know. every once in a while i try, tho.

i do know a lot about how the city runs. i am active in the democratic party in my ward, count my committeeman and alderman among my friends, and have relationships with many other government officials. just a layman, but an attentive and informed one. my alderman practices a whole, whole lot of small d democratic decision making.
plus i am OLD. been here for 30 years, and raised an hour from downtown. seen a lot of stuff.

[Hannah Bell]

21. i understand that. i also understand that it is fact that half the funds went to big profitable

corporations, while teachers were laid off.

the funds to jewel & target went for a shopping mall right off the freeway at 119th & marshfield. fairly near calumet park.

[mopinko]

23. bringing a grocery store to a food desert, as well as jobs.

is there something opaque about the concept of infrastructure? this money is to develop assets to the city, to the neighborhoods. and btw, although ritchie daley sings the checks, these things only happen with the support of the alderman. some of those alderman are actually staunch democrats working hard for their community.
when target builds a big store, there needs to be a big sewer lines, water lines, electric lines. that is the sort of thing that these monies are spent on. these developments just would not happen if the city cannot meet their obligations to provide these utilities. and the landscaping and beautification standards that the city has are multiplied with tif grants.

numbers just do not tell the story. you have to have walked through millennium park, seen a neighborhood spring from an abandoned eyesore, seen murals, sculpture, fountains and flowers. a lot of what this money is spent on are things that raise the quality of life here, things that take the hard edge off the big city. numbers do not measure this stuff.

[Hannah Bell]

24. it's only your assertion that the jewel was placed in a "food desert".

i googled it via google maps & the area didn't look like a food desert to me. plus, that doesn't explain the target in the same complex which also got money. it was an entire shopping complex, right off the freeway, placed in a redeveloping former industrial area with minimal nearby housing & a lot of streets seemingly in the process of being torn up (looking at the pictures on google maps).

if you have some actual information about that particular neighborhood feel free to educate us, but simply making the global assertion that these projects go into "food deserts" doesn't cut it.

this particular complex was placed for easy freeway access, which renders the concept of "food desert" kind of specious.