With his public opinion at an all-time low and questions circling about his "creative" city financing, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is making the media rounds -- sitting down with both WLS' Bill Cameron and WBEZ's Eight Forty-Eight in recent days. Not surprisingly, Daley is trying to blunt criticism that his shadowy tax increment financing (TIF) system has become a major drag on the city's finances, contributing to this year's historic $520 million shortfall. Instead of coming clean on the public funds that he's skimmed off the tax rolls, Daley is making more bogus claims to divert attention from his "glorified slush fund." Here's some excerpts from his conversation with WBEZ's Allison Cuddy, along with our responses:

DALEY: Most TIF funds don't generate any money. Most TIF funds are used for schools, parks, libraries, ex-offender programs, job training, economic development to keep jobs here. And I'll go over each TIF to show you that.

CUDDY: But you generate about a half-a billion in TIF funds per year.

DALEY: Not quite. No, I don't think so.

CUDDY: And you have about a billion in cash.

DALEY: No I don't think so. I don't think it's that high. Most of it's pledged already for a school, a park, a library. Most of it's pledged for economic development in depressed areas to bring back jobs or to keep jobs there.

The mayor doesn't "think" that his TIF network siphons off around a half-million dollars per year?  In 2008 alone, the TIF system siphoned $552 million off the tax rolls, based on annual reports signed by Daley himself. Cook County Clerk David Orr also tracks the numbers and reports that $555 million was diverted in 2007.

And what about the surplus Cuddy cites? We were one of the first local outlets to report that the city's TIF network ended 2008 with $1 billion in unspecified "special revenue funds."   Where did we get that figure?  Why, from Daley's own Department of Community Development, who included the numbers in a document provided to the City Council.

As for Daley's assertion that most of the surplus is "pledged," that's more or less true.  Indeed, the document also disclosed that the city planned to spend between $478 million and $643 million on new redevelopment projects in 2009.  But this doesn't change a thing.  Considering that the TIF network will likely siphon off another $500 million this year, it seems safe to say that it will once again end the year with a hefty surplus.

Oh, and about Daley's point that TIF funds are often used to build "a school, a park, a library," that's a problem as well, as the Reader's Whet Moser notes today.

CUDDY: But TIFs divert money from parks and schools, no?

DALEY: No it does not.

CUDDY: Because it freezes the property tax...

DALEY: No, no, no

CUDDY: ...And it goes into development funds

DALEY: No it doesn't because there's no growth of tax in those districts. If you look at those districts there's no growth of taxes. Otherwise it's decreasing. In a suburban area they TIF'd everything. It's amazing in a suburban area, to keep their small communities alive. This is to help depressed areas. Take the West Side of the city, take a drive there. They don't really create a lot of money in TIFs. You hope to grow it so you can bond money out. That's what you have to do.

CUDDY: To attract the development?

DALEY: Yes.

It's not surprising that Daley is trying to focus the attention on the use of TIF in "depressed areas."  After all, the law enabling this economic development tool stipulates that it be used in "blighted" neighborhoods. But the mayor long ago abandoned that intent, instead opting to invest heavily in the Loop, throwing TIF dollars at deep-pocketed interests like United Airlines, the Mercantile Exchange, and insurance giant Willis Holdings. The city insists that this type of corporate welfare will ultimately boost the tax base.  But there is no real oversight in place to test those theories.  It basically amounts to blind faith.

DALEY: The only way to look at TIFs is to break down and look at what it's accomplished in each community. It's amazing. Otherwise, those things, affordable housing, the Kennedy King. That came from a TIF district to build the Kennedy King. It didn't come from the federal government.

CUDDY: That's a big accomplishment.

DALEY: Yes.

CUDDY: But you say that you'll give a full accountability. But they say, the Chicago Reader charged that there isn't enough transparency. The aldermen are saying it too. Why not show how much money is there, where it will go.

DALEY: Each district will find out. I think we'll find out. It should be.

CUDDY: But the whole big picture.

DALEY: Each district has that. Each district has that.

CUDDY: Will you go forward making that more transparent?

DALEY: Sure we will. Sure we will.

Even those willing to give Daley the benefit of the doubt about the positive affects of TIF, such as Crain's columnist Greg Hinz, are still telling him it's time to "cut the bull" and come clean on the program. Considering the increasing attention being paid to Chicago's huge TIF problem, "sure we will" is no longer a sufficient answer.

Image used under a Creative Commons license by Flickr user marcmonaghan.