If you’re still inclined to believe anything Mayor Rahm Emanuel says about, well, anything, let me remind you that it’s been almost two years since he announced he had reformed the much-maligned tax increment financing program.
Having spent two years running Chicago, Mayor Emanuel has apparently come to the conclusion that the area around McCormick place is among the poorest of the poor, and that a basketball arena for a private university charging more than $30,000 a year in tuition is at the top of the list of things this city really, really needs.
Last year, Koch left Credit Suisse to become Emanuel’s deputy mayor. As far as I can tell, the job requires him to look on in awe—feigned or real—as the mayor explains his latest harebrained economic development scheme. Of course, now that I think about it, that may be Mooney’s job as well.
It’s hard to see how it could have any “real return” for taxpayers. As I explained last week, he’s using the $55 million to buy land that’s currently taxable. But as soon as the city owns the land, it will no longer be on the tax rolls. So instead of generating new property tax dollars—which is what TIF projects are supposed to do—he’ll be generating less.
What else? The panel recommended that the mayor “make it easier for the public to understand the rationale for TIF funding for a project” by adopting standards for handing out TIF funds, then conducting a formal analysis to determine whether each proposed project meets the bar.
The TIF panel further recommended that every TIF deal be measured to determine whether, at the very least, it produces a net benefit for the public.
