If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t believe it.
In short, they want to offset budget cuts, class-size increases, and teacher firings by taking roughly $250 million a year in property tax dollars out of the TIF program and sending it back to the schools.
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His colleague Tom Allen (38th) says we should use TIF money to expand the blue cart recycling program, which has been offered to fewer than half the 700,000 households served by city garbage crews, a disgrace in a city led by a “green mayor.”
And Sweet Home Chicago, a coalition of housing groups, wants to earmark 20 percent of the funds collected in every TIF district—roughly $100 million a year—to create more affordable housing.
But the members of Raise Your Hand are demanding that Mayor Daley and schools CEO Ron Huberman change the TIF program right now.
They also realized they had to look at the way CPS and Mayor Daley spend the education money they have, instead of merely asking the state to send them more. Eventually, that led them to the TIF program.
Just imagine if the Park District, the water reclamation district, and Cook County were to follow suit.
