THE CITY THAT PAYS

Mayor Daley likes to give your tax money to his friends and family.

City Spends $22 Million on Rent and Look Who's Getting It:

The city of Chicago spends more than $22 million a year leasing property, usually from clout-heavy landlords and often at higher rents than other tenants pay, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found.
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In all, the city's Department of General Services says it has 75 leases for properties the city uses for such things as libraries, offices, warehouses and clinics.

But the list -- provided by the mayor's staff in response to a Sun-Times records request -- appears to be incomplete. It doesn't include, for instance, the warehouse at 3348 S. Pulaski that the city has occupied on a month-to-month lease since it was acquired by Vanecko and his partners in 2007. City Hall has paid them more than $480,000 in rent over the past 15 months.

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Among the Sun-Times' findings:

-The city pays the most per square foot for a branch library in Chinatown -- more even than it pays for downtown office space.

-The city has three leases with landlords who are clients of the insurance brokerage run by the mayor's brother, Cook County Commissioner John Daley.

-Two of the city's landlords have hired the law firm of Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th) -- in one case to win a cut in their real estate taxes on property leased to the city.

When you pay your property taxes, see that extra money added to your restaurant tab, or fork over $50 for a parking ticket, just remember who is getting rich while your taxes and fees rise. All this money from taxes and fees, all this money from the sale of the Skyway, parking garages, and parking meters...and the city is still broke! The city that works...for the connected cronies of our crooked mayor.