I was flying home from a much-needed trip out of the country—red wine and meat for everyone in Argentina!—when the Chicago City Council finally got around to challenging the mayor on his tax increment financing scam.
Around here, that’s a revolt. Here’s how it happened.
Yet for all these flaws, the TIF program has one essential quality that makes it too powerful to resist. It gives Mayor Emanuel hundreds of millions of dollars that he’s free to spend pretty much as he likes.
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Mayor Emanuel has been a little craftier. He claimed to have reformed the program, even though he didn’t, which left him free to abuse it.
Their proposal came at a time when Mayor Emanuel was claiming the schools were so broke that he had to fire teachers, cut programs, and force principals to choose between buying toilet paper or copy paper, since they didn’t always have money for both.
Well, the TIF reform fervor didn’t last long. Mayor Emanuel directed his council allies to send the ordinance to the rules committee, which is where they bury legislation he doesn’t want the council to vote on.
