Historian and reporter for The Nation Rick Perlstein is doing a series of articles on the perils of privatization. In this 13 minute interview on WBEZ he lays out the reasons to be very skeptical about the sorts of deals Chicago is “forcing down the throats” of the taxpayers. He gives a shout out to the work of Tom Tresser and the CivicLab.
I’ll be presenting on the TIFs of the 20th Ward at this community forum.
How can Chicago be broke? The city has paid out $737.1 MILLION in legal settlement and judgement expenses in the nine years of 2003 to 2012. 65% of that is police-related litigation.
$96 MILLION has been spent by the City and Cook County defending Jon Burge and settling with his victims.
In addition, the City has spent $176 million over the past eight years in outside legal fees!
The City has spent a whopping $913,1 MILLION on legal messes.
I should’ve gone to law school!
I gave this presentation to the Loyola Law School’s Public Interest Law Program Thursday. The audio is 47 minutes. If you’d like a copy, email me at tom@tresser.com.
Students as DePaul organized a public forum on the proposed DePaul Stadium and asked for an Illumination of the 17 TIFs inside the 2nd Ward – spotlighting the site and adjacent TIFs. This research is from The TIF Illumination Project. If you want a copy of this presentation please email tom@civiclab.us.
At least ONE of the major reasons. Because the state’s contribution to public education is so shockingly low, school districts in Illinois rely heavily on local property taxes to fund their schools. So, anything that diverts property taxes from public schools places a burden on an already under-funded public education system. Likewise, if you live in a town or city where the property tax revenues are high, your school system will be better off. From “Illinois Kids Count 2013.”
Sign the petition aimed at Mayor Emanuel – “Empty the TIF accounts!“
From a press conference held outside the State of Illinois Building on August 2, 2013. The Chicago Teachers Union and the RAISE your Hand Coalition of concerned public school parents delivered a letter to Attorney General Lisa Madigan asking her to get the true story of where our $1.7 billion in TIF funds are being held.
Join with over 3,000 people who have signed this online petition to the mayor from The TIF Illumination Project demanding that the TIF accounts be emptied and all property taxes turned over to the units of government that should’ve gotten those dollars in the first place.
I was in the featured debate at the 2013 Bughouse Square Debate on Saturday, July 27 in front of the Newberry Library. The topic was “Should The City Subsidize The Cubs To Keep Them In Chicago?” My position was “NO WAY, NO HOW” side. On the other side was Lester Munson, reporter for ESPN. The event was moderated by Chicago’s great natural resource, Rick Kogan.
Listen to the debate and the Q&A session (34 minutes).
Here are my notes for the debate. Use them if you have to argue against subsidizing sports facilities or other private enterprise using public dollars…
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The Mayor has announced plans for hundreds of millions of dollars on tourism-related construction, including 10,000 seat basketball arena for DePaul University near McCormick Place. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the project will require $103 million in public finance and TIF-related dollars. Read DePaul’s description of the project.
When you read the hy
pe, you hear phrases like “world-class destination” and “tourism mecca” being offered as visions for the city. The plan includes giving DePaul naming rights to the new stadium. The President of DePaul, Rev. Dennis Holtschneider said “I’d like to keep our student tuition from rising. Any way we can keep the cost down so I don’t have to put this on student tuition is a wonderful thing.” I’d like to keep my property tax bills down. I’d like to keep our public schools open and hire more teachers. I’d like to expand public transportation, not cut service. Giving DePaul, the largest Catholic university in America over $100 million of public dollars for a private stadium is a gross misuse of public funds.
DePaul’s 2013-2014_budget is expecting revenues of $629,557,366! Why do they need our $103 million for their facility?
It’s another example of…
