Most aldermen are eager to build new schools in their communities, if only to show their constituents that they have some clout at City Hall. But on the northwest side it’s just the opposite: 31st Ward alderman Ray Suarez is exercising his clout to keep a school out of the area.
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Traditionally the school board has covered acquisition, demolition, and construction costs for new schools by borrowing money—or issuing bonds—that it repaid over time with revenue from property taxes. But now the school system can barely find enough money to pay its teachers, let alone build new facilities. Instead it’s relying on Mayor Daley’s controversial tax increment financing program for construction costs.
Two years ago, as Daley was gearing up for reelection, schools CEO Arne Duncan and other board of ed officials praised him for pledging to spend up to $800 million in TIF funds on new schools. When they financed construction themselves, school officials didn’t need outside approval to build schools. But now, because they’re being built with TIF money, these projects are overseen by the Public Building Commission, whose ten members are appointed by the mayor. And each one needs the OK of the City Council, starting with its Committee on Housing and Real Estate, which Suarez chairs.
“I don’t want to say anything bad about Alderman Suarez,” he adds. “I love him like a brother. But we got to do the right things for the kids.”
Actually aldermen have allowed Mayor Daley to mislead them on TIFs: No one TIF really belongs to any one aldermen or community. When the City Council creates a TIF, the amount of money the schools, parks, county, and other taxing bodies get from property taxes in that district remains frozen for 23 years. If the schools and parks get $100 from taxpayers in the TIF district when it’s created, that’s about all the schools and parks will get for the next 23 years. As folks in the district pay more in property taxes, the extra money flows into the TIF funds. That’s why aldermen tend to think of the TIF money as belonging to them and their community.
For more on politics, see our blog Clout City at chicagoreader.com.
