Explore our content

All types | All dates | All authors
City of Chicago
Quick Hit
by Adam Doster
11:19am
Fri Aug 6, 2010

Take The Bond Downgrade Seriously, Chicago

In a written statement issued yesterday, Chicago's Chief Financial Officer Gene Saffold pooh-poohed the news that Fitch Ratings is downgrading Chicago's bond rating on billions in outstanding general obligation bonds. Saffold said the city didn't believe the decision "will have a significant impact on our long-term borrowing costs," mainly because officials at City Hall see the financial crisis as the main driver of Chicago's budget woes.

That's true enough. Like the state and municipalities nationwide, Chicago has seen its tax revenues dip sharply over the past two years. But the report underlies some fundamental problems with the city's budget practices. Fitch specifically criticized Mayor Daley's decision to use reserve funds (like those created by the parking meter and Skyway privatization schemes) to cover operating expenses over the last several years. Those operating deficits wouldn't be so high if the city hadn't siphoned off so much property tax revenue into its tax increment financing "shadow budget," either. Over 90 percent of Mayor Daley's own property tax bill, for example, is tossed into that fund instead of toward regular taxing bodies. In other words, there are reasons why Chicago's long-term outlook is "negative" while those of other cities remain stable.

Quick Hit
by Adam Doster
9:37am
Fri Aug 6, 2010

Getting Up To Speed On TIFs

For years, Chicago-based reporters not named Joravsky avoided writing about the Daley administration's tax increment financing (TIF) system, largely out of fear that the issue was too arcane for regular readers to understand. That's changed over the past two years, when some enterprising reporters ably described how the mayor spent taxpayer dollars to prop up thriving communities while worsening the city's recession-induced budget problems. Now, even major papers like the Tribune are penning editorials calling on the mayor to raid this year's TIF surplus and use the cash to plug budget gaps.

Community groups and academics are also trying to get voters up to speed about how the mayor's use of the development tool affects the taxes they pay and the services they receive. The University of Illinois-Chicago's School of Urban Planning has launched a new, user-friendly website that allows residents to research TIF districts in their neighborhood. And on Saturday, the Organization of the Northeast is holding a TIF training session at Uptown's Truman College. You can find more information about the event at ONE's website.

PI Original
by Adam Doster
9:46am
Thu Aug 5, 2010

Daley's Defensive TIF Stance

Tax increment financing

At yesterday's State of the City address, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley sounded like a politician who had no intention of ceding control over his tax increment financing empire to ease Chicago's budget woes.

Quick Hit
by Adam Doster
9:30am
Thu Aug 5, 2010

Munoz To Endorse Coal Plant Ordinance

Frustrated with a lack of action to curb carbon emissions on Capitol Hill, Ald. Rick Munoz (22nd Ward) told WBEZ' Chip Mitchell yesterday that he will sign on as a co-sponsor of Chicago's Clean Power ordinance, which would force coal plant operators within the city limits to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 50 percent and soot-producing particulates by 90 percent within the next four years. This is a huge win for the environmentalists pushing the bill; one of Chicago's two coal-fired power plants operated by Midwest Generation -- the key target of the ordinance -- is located in Munoz' ward. Not coincidentally, the polluter has showered Munoz with campaign contributions over the past decade.

Munoz' move means that another key holdout, Ald. Danny Solis (25th Ward), now has no real cover to vote down the ordinance on parochial grounds. (Solis represents the ward in which the other Midwest Generation plant is located.) Neither do the rest of the stragglers on the City Council, whose wards would experience serious air quality improvements as a result of the proposed regulation.