Last week, we documented how the Reader's stellar investigation into Mayor Daley's $1 billion "shadow budget" had reinvigorated the public debate around tax increment financing (TIF) -- just in time for the city's budget talks with aldermen.  Over the weekend, FOX Chicago Sunday's Dane Placko picked up the ball, saying that "every Chicago taxpayer should read" the latest article by Ben Joravsky and Mick Dumke. With the city's financial problems coming to a head, Placko told viewers, "Imagine how this budget would look if we weren't dealing with this huge TIF problem." Considering that TIF siphoned $552 million off the tax rolls last year alone the possibilities are indeed vast.  He then touched on an issue that we've written about extensively, noting that "a lot of the money is going to corporations to remodel buildings and such." Watch it:

PLACKO: In this week's article, the Reader outlines how the city maintains what is essentially a second budget, which it refuses to release. Even aldermen only get to see TIF information for their own wards. Not the big picture. And this is significant because the mayor controls a pot of TIF money that has grown to $1 billion, one-sixth the size of the entire budget. With so much money going to TIF, property taxes in non-TIF district have to go up to cover the money that's not going to the general revenue fund. Imagine how this budget would look if we weren't dealing with this huge TIF problem -- and a lot of the money going to corporations to remodel buildings and such.

"People have been getting upset about TIF for years," co-host Jack Conaty added, "I think it's going to peak here shortly."

Let's hope that the debate comes sooner rather than later. After all, with a little creative thinking, the city's $1 billion surplus could go a long way in solving this year's budget crisis. Before that can happen, however, the mayor is going to have to come clean on what TIF money is already committed. In a column on Friday, Crain's Greg Hinz urged the Daley administration to "cut the bull." "It's our money," Hinz wrote. "You clearly have a pretty good idea how you intend to spend it, so tell us." We couldn't agree more.