Check out this great post at Progress Illinois about Mayor Daley's favorite thing in the whole world - Tax Increment Financing:
Unfortunately, corporations and their politically-connected executives, such as Willis Vice Chair Bill Bartholomay, appear to view these tax breaks as part of doing business in Chicago. Meanwhile, Mayor Daley controls the purse strings and can curry favor with these CEOs by doling out the subsidies himself.
To understand why this is so ridiculous, it's important to remember that TIF originated as a redevelopment tool for the city's blighted areas -- stretches of land that entrepreneurs and developers would surely avoid without some sore of financial incentive. Under Mayor Daley, the system has been so perverted that it is now using taxpayer dollars to build executive suites in the middle of downtown. The TIF network has also expanded so rapidly that it now siphons hundreds of millions of dollars each from the cash-starved taxing bodies, such as the city, county, park district, and board of education.
TIFS! What a scam. If you don't know by now, please educate yourself. Go to Ben Joravsky's TIF Archive.
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