A Chicago high school teacher is preparing to sue the city for refusing to answer inquiries about its tax increment financing budget.
One problem investigative journalists have with the Daley administration's proposed "FOIA reform" is that their requests would be made easily accessible online while City Hall's responses would not be publicized. That's a justifiable critique. It assumes, however, that the administration actually responds promptly to all FOIA requests.
Jackson Potter hasn't been so lucky. On March 27, the Little Village High School of Social Justice teacher and a co-chair of the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE) filed a FOIA with the Chicago Public Schools asking for student and teacher data on the schools impacted by the city's school turnaround program over the past three years. For close to a month, Potter says heard nothing from the agency. He called to follow up with the city's FOIA Act Officer Cassandra Daniels, whose own website includes a self-imposed 14-day deadline for issuing a receipt of information. Her excuse? "She told me her office had been busy that week," Potter says.
The following month, on April 27, Potter resubmitted his request and broadened his inquiry to include all internal Chicago Public Schools communications regarding the current budget deficit and any information on how tax increment financing districts (TIF) have been used to fund schools in the past decade. The following day, he hand-delivered copies of those requests to Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office, alerting them that the district had ignored his previous pleas.
Days slipped by and CPS maintained its silence. On May 6, the AG's office demanded a written response from CPS within seven business days. Yesterday afternoon, Potter finally received information related to the turnarounds from Daniels. The solicitation for TIF spending data, on the other hand, was ignored completely.
With the help of Terrance Norton, the director of the Center for Open Government at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Potter now plans to file suit against CPS demanding the agency end its silence and produce its budget details. The pair claims CPS is acting in defiance of Section 3(d) of the state's Freedom of Information Act, which requires a government body to comply with the request or provide a written denial within five business days. "Until we get all of the information that's available," Potter says," we will keep the pressure up."
It's no surprise why the city would want to keep its "shadow budget" private. According to an analysis carried out by Robert Ginsburg and Don Wiener on behalf of SEIU's Illinois Council (which sponsors this website), Chicago's TIF system absorbed $552 million in property tax revenue in 2008. Considering that over half of every property tax dollar goes toward schools, it's fair to assume that roughly $300 million of the revenue generated in TIF districts each year would otherwise end up in CPS's coffers. Instead, that money is stashed away for the Daley administration to use as it saw fit.
Like some dissident voices on the City Council, Potter thinks there needs to be more transparency in the TIF process. "We need clear accounting," he says, "so we can see why the city is giving millions of dollars to big businesses and real estate developers." He also suggests cracking open the city's $1 billion TIF piggy bank creatively to provide relief for students and their teachers facing deep cuts. (We offered some suggestions on how to do so last year.)
CORE allies are planning to protest outside Chicago's Board of Education building next Tuesday. We will keep an eye on Potter's suit.
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