Tax Increment Financing

"A TIF Geek If There Ever Was One"

Josh Kalven — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:40:49 -0800

That's how the Reader's Ben Joravsky describes our own Angela Caputo in his latest article on Chicago's tax increment financing (TIF) network. And you can bet she's wearing that badge with pride.

Joravasky's piece also details how state legislators used a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) bill to quietly extend the lifespan of four Chicago TIF districts by 12 years. With little to no debate, the bill was passed by both chambers in the final days of the regular session and signed by the governor in late August. Joravsky later notes that the projects to be subsidized by these districts during the extended period appear worthwhile, at least when compared with "some of the stuff the mayor comes up with, such as the recent $35 million handout to United Airlines." But the process of approving the extension should nonetheless raise eyebrows:

You'd hope that in these calamitous economic times, Governor Quinn, house speaker Michael Madigan, and senate president John Cullerton would feel compelled to hold hearings and engage in debate before effectively raising Chicagoans' property taxes. But you'd hope in vain.

Joravsky further writes about Cook County Clerk David Orr's new TIF search engine and gives some great instructions on how to research the amount of individual property taxes that go into Daley's slush fund. Read the whole thing here.

Some TIF Sanity From Ald. Reilly

Josh Kalven — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:46:01 -0800

A Chicago alderman objecting to the creation of a new tax increment financing (TIF) district in his ward?

It's not something you hear about every day. But Brendan Reilly (42nd Ward) is reportedly pushing back against some East Loop property owners who want to see their area -- in the heart of downtown -- become eligible for TIF subsidies. From Crain's Real Estate Daily:

“Owner reinvestment and market forces should ultimately decide ‘winners’ and ‘losers,’ not TIF subsidies,” Mr. Reilly said in a release. “The East Loop TIF proposal appears to provide a competitive advantage to those properties within the proposed TIF boundary. The intent of TIF was never to place surrounding properties (directly outside of the district, of similar age and class) at a leasing disadvantage. This proposal would very likely have exactly that effect.” [....]

“I do not agree that the needs within the proposed boundary come close to meeting the threshold level of obsolescence or deterioration the Illinois statute was designed to address,” Mr. Reilly wrote in a latter to Matthew Amato, a Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. executive who is general manager of the Aon Center.

As we've repeatedly noted, while TIF was originally devised as an economic development tool for blighted neighborhoods, Mayor Daley has consistently overlooked that original purpose in order to create new TIF districts in affluent areas and throughout Chicago’s downtown. The TIF network -- whose subsidies he directly controls -- now comprises nearly a third of the city's surface area and, on average, redirects $500 million away from local taxing bodies each year. Moreover, Daley's unilateral ability to approve projects within the individual districts gives him massive power over individual alderman.

Kudos to Ald. Reilly for recognizing that more downtown TIF districts is not what this city needs.

Activists Push For Better TIF Investment: "We Need This Housing"

Angela Caputo — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:14:37 -0800

A few months back, a coalition of community activists from across Chicago met at City Hall to call out the Daley administration for investing so few tax increment financing (TIF) dollars in affordable housing. After all, over the past decade, a mere 4 percent of the economic development money has gone towards such projects. That's despite the fact that home construction and the stabilization of housing stock can be key drivers in the rejuvenation of blighted communities. But instead of using substantial amounts of the money for these purposes, regular readers know that Mayor Daley has more often played favorites and doled out money to deep-pocketed corporations to subsidize their swank office renovations.

With the Sweet Home Chicago coalition at their back, Alds. Walter Burnett (27th Ward) and Manny Flores (1st Ward) have taken the lead in proposing that a larger chunk of the money -- 20 percent of TIF revenue collected each year -- is committed to affordable housing projects. These new and rehabbed developments would address the city's housing imbalance by setting aside apartments for low- and moderate-income families (earning $37,700 a year or less) who are priced out of decent housing in a growing number of Chicago communities.

Yesterday, the coalition of community groups gathered in in Uptown where they highlighted some of the blighted buildings that could benefit from greater TIF investment. "We need this housing," neighborhood housing activist Laverne Johnson said, pointing to her neighbors' sub-standard living conditions. "We are all suffering." Watch:

So far, five aldermen have signed on to the ordinance. Once it has 15 supporters, the measure will go to the full City Council. The Sweet Home Chicago organizers are working on drumming up more support in wards throughout the city. "Until you have pressure from the outside," co-sponsor Ald. Joe Moore (49th Ward) tells us, "the conversation won't happen."

Is This Daley's Idea Of TIF Transparency?

Angela Caputo — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:18:13 -0800

Mayor Daley appears to be feeling the pressure to come clean about his plans to spend the city's $1 billion tax increment financing (TIF) surplus. As regular readers know, the city's unprecedented budget shortfall has opened the door to some long-overdue questions about why the public funds ($495 million in 2009 to be exact) siphoned off the tax rolls each year aren't folded into the public budgeting process. On Friday, Daley went on the offense, citing a recently-renovated bridge as an example of how the TIF system isn't shadowy at all, but rather an expansive public works campaign that's unfolding in plain sight. From the Tribune's report:

Aldermen who want greater control over how tax increment financing funds are used in their wards are "beating the heck out of us" without appreciating how the money has improved their neighborhoods, Daley said at an event to mark repairs on the Cherry Avenue bridge connecting North Avenue to Goose Island. The bridge renovation was funded in part using $3.75 million collected from a special taxing district in the area, where property tax collections were frozen to help finance infrastructure repairs [...]

"Some of the aldermen are questioning it. That's why they're not here today, to be very simple. Because they don't think it should be used for this purpose," Daley said.

For the past year, we've been following the TIF debate very closely and have yet to hear an alderman protest the use of the funds on a public works project. What's come under fire is the fact that the money is being doled out in secret -- and often in the form of corporate welfare -- at a time when public services have been slashed and property owners taxed to the hilt.

Moreover, most aldermen probably aren't so fond of how the mayor uses his control of the TIF honey pot to keep them in line. As the Reader's Ben Joravsky and Mick Dumke explained in their latest investigation, those who cross the mayor can often forget about getting a new school or other public works project in their ward:

By moving more necessary expenditures into the secret budget that he ultimately controls, the mayor also wields even more power over every public entity, from the City Council to the public schools to the Park District. At various times at least half a dozen aldermen have told us that mayoral aides pressure them on key votes—such as the ordinances for funding the Olympics or moving the Children's Museum to Grant Park—by either promising to give their wards more TIF dollars or threatening to take TIF dollars away.

When you consider the amount of power Daley derives from the TIF system, it's not surprising that he continues to make weak pledges regarding transparency, such as his latest promise to put together "a full list of all the examples" of TIF-funded projects. As Greg Hinz recently put it, the mayor needs to "cut the bull" and let the public and their representatives have a look before these public funds are spent.

Over 90 Percent Of Daley's Property Taxes Go Towards TIF

Angela Caputo — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:54:49 -0800

Each fall, Cook County Clerk David Orr releases an annual tally of how much public money has been absorbed into Chicago's massive tax increment financing (TIF) system. Like clockwork, each new report reveals that hundreds of millions are whisked away from schools, parks, libraries, and other taxing bodies. The exact amount each taxpayers kicks into Mayor Daley's "glorified slush fund" has remained elusive, however, as now-Congressman Mike Quigley wrote in a Progress Illinois column last year:

The single worst aspect of the TIF system in Cook County is that taxpayers residing in the districts have no idea how much of their tax payments end up in TIF accounts. Indeed, while TIF is listed on every bill alongside the agencies receiving property taxes, the line always reads $0.00. This is due to a quirk in the way the County Clerk has historically calculated tax rates. But as a consequence, the taxpaying public is misinformed.

That changed yesterday, when Orr took a major step towards unlocking that part of the TIF mystery. Along with his tally for 2008, the Clerk's office has unveiled an online search engine that allows those who reside in TIF districts to find out (using their permanent index number) how much of their tax bill is being siphoned away.

For fun, we plugged in Mayor Daley's PIN number (17-22-109-027-0000) and found that a whopping 92 percent of his property taxes were redirected into the Near South TIF last year. By contrast, cash-strapped schools are getting a mere 3.9 percent of the Daley's property tax dollars. This goes to show how much strain the TIF system are putting on those local taxing bodies entrusted to deliver education and other public services.

We're not talking about pocket change, here. By Orr's count, the TIF network has collected upwards of $3.6 billion in taxpayer dollars since 1986. Meanwhile, neither the public nor the city's aldermen can gain a comprehensive look at this "shadow budget." By the clerk's count, $495 million was skimmed (PDF) during the 2008 tax year.* The clerk's latest report shows an 11 percent decline over during that period, largely attributable to the expiration of the huge Central Loop district. In its wake, the LaSalle Street district is the new ground zero for corporate welfare in Chicago, handing out goodies to the politically-connected. Soon that it will have some major buying power; in just its third year, the district pulled in a cool $26 million. Meanwhile, truly blighted areas -- which TIF is intended to help turn around -- aren't faring nearly as well. More from the Reader's Ben Joravsky:

As Orr's report makes clear, the neighborhoods receiving the most in blight-fighting TIF money are the wealthiest. For example, the Roseland/Michigan TIF on the far south side collected $834,203 in 2009. In contrast, the top TIF taker was the Near South TIF, just south of the Loop, which brought in $54.7 million. By the way, Mayor Daley happens to live in that TIF district [...]

So in the fight against blight in Chicago it's the wealthiest communities with the least amount of blight and the most political connections that get the goodies. Funny how that works.

Hopefully, media outlets and concerned citizens will being spreading the word about Orr's new tool. Generating interest in this arcane -- but extremely important -- issue depends on illustrating taxpayers' individual financial stake taxpayers have in the TIF system. Now we have a way to do just that.

* Regular readers may recall the $552 million figure that Robert Ginsburg, Ph.D. and Don Wiener, Ph.D. recently tallied up on behalf of SEIU's Illinois Council (which sponsors this website). Why the discrepancy? The $552 million sum is based on the city's TIF annual reports for 2008. The revenues disclosed in those reports are based on taxes collected during 2008, which in turn are pegged to property values during the 2007 calendar year. Orr's latest revenue figure, by contrast, is based on the tax bills sent out this fall, which are based on property values during 2008. Therefore, Ginsburg and Weiner's count includes the Central Loop revenue, while Orr's tally does not.

Tribune: Daley Has Gotten "Carried Away" With TIF

Josh Kalven — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:57:48 -0800

Since the Reader's Ben Joravsky and Mick Dumke published their latest report on Chicago's shady tax increment financing (TIF) system, we've noted the increasing media attention being devoted to the issue, with some reporters even going so far as to refer to as a "huge problem" for the city. Today, as the city budget hearings wind on, the Tribune editorial board does its part to keep the story alive in a piece titled, "It's Our Money." The board takes that reasonable (and familiar) position that, while TIF can be a valuable and effective economic development tool, Mayor Daley's use of it has gotten out of hand:

TIFs are meant to revitalize blighted areas that wouldn't otherwise be attractive to developers. By designating an area a TIF district, the city lays claim to the new tax dollars generated by rising property values there. Those dollars are supposed to be reinvested in the district to promote growth.

TIFs are one of the better redevelopment tools available to local governments. But Chicago has gotten carried away, creating a vast redevelopment wonderland controlled by the mayor. More than a third of the city, including the LaSalle financial district and most of the Loop, now falls within TIF districts. Though it stands to reason that an area that raises hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes is no longer blighted, if it ever was, the Daley administration insists the TIFs are needed to keep those skyscrapers from falling into disrepair.

The board goes on to call for more transparency: "Open the books, Mayor. Put everything out in the open so taxpayers can see how their dollars are spent."

It's great to see more and more voices in the local media speak up about the TIF "mission creep." A more transparent system is obviously needed. But we should also recognize that there are ways to scale back the system and lessen its drag on local taxing bodies. Learn more about them here.

Daley Tries - And Fails - To Defend His TIF Empire

Angela Caputo — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:36:13 -0800

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.

Ald. Allen: We Should Rename TIF "The 'Over-Tax Fund’"

Angela Caputo — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:37:51 -0700

Is Northwest Side Ald. Tom Allen (38th Ward) emerging as the Chicago City Council's leading tax increment financing (TIF) watchdog? Since Mayor Daley began to detail just how bad the city's finances have become, Allen has been one of the most vocal critics of the mayor's decision not to crack open his $1 billion "piggy bank" to ease the financial crisis. The Sun-Times' Fran Spielman caught his latest remarks during a budget hearing yesterday:

It was opening day of City Council budget hearings, and Chicago aldermen were loaded for bear [...]

They railed about the mayor’s plan to spend all but $730 million of the combined, $3 billion in Chicago Skyway and parking meter proceeds while allowing tax-increment-financing (TIF) districts to siphon $540 million-a-year away from the city’s property tax base.

“We should re-name it the ‘Over-tax fund’ — OTF. How can we with a straight face tell the citizens of Chicago that, ‘We have $1.1 billion of your money stuffed under our mattress, but don’t worry. We’re gonna give you $35 million in [property tax] relief?’ ’’ said Ald. Tom Allen (38th).

City officials have tried to quash the suggestion; for instance, CBS 2 reported their response this week that TIF funds are off limits and can't be tapped for general operating expenses. Perhaps if more local reporters understood how TIF districts operate, they wouldn't be so quick to take the bait. The fact that many gloss over is that the TIF funds represented diverted operating dollars. As such, the growing loss -- $552 million last year alone -- is putting strain on the taxing bodies' finances.

As we've pointed out before, if the Daley administration would get creative with TIF and begin retiring districts that go unused or have met their objectives, millions in surpluses could be released back into the general fund. Yet Daley has gone to great lengths to distort the intent of the law (reversing blight), instead using the cash to help deep-pocketed companies with political connections land millions for their high-end developments. Departed Tribune business columnist David Greising recently described the practice "a racket."

Then there's the issue of leveraging the existing TIF funds to jumpstart the local economy. In the same report we criticized above, CBS 2 picked up on a worthy use of TIF funds today that we've been writing about for months: building affordable housing. Instead of investing in such projects, the mayor has long squandered "affordable housing" money on sweetheart deals that benefit the wealthy and politically connected at the expense of people who are facing a severe affordable housing crisis. Those choices are also placing additional strain on the city's operating budget as $1.4 million more is now being spent on homeless shelters that are overwhelmed by families who can't find an affordable place to live.

So to Ald. Allen's latest complaint, we say: more like this, please.

FOX's Placko Highlights Chicago's "Huge TIF Problem"

Angela Caputo — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:22:04 -0700

Last week, we documented how the Reader's stellar investigation into Mayor Daley's $1 billion "shadow budget" had reinvigorated the public debate around tax increment financing (TIF) -- just in time for the city's budget talks with aldermen. Over the weekend, FOX Chicago Sunday's Dane Placko picked up the ball, saying that "every Chicago taxpayer should read" the latest article by Ben Joravsky and Mick Dumke. With the city's financial problems coming to a head, Placko told viewers, "Imagine how this budget would look if we weren't dealing with this huge TIF problem." Considering that TIF siphoned $552 million off the tax rolls last year alone the possibilities are indeed vast. He then touched on an issue that we've written about extensively, noting that "a lot of the money is going to corporations to remodel buildings and such." Watch it:

PLACKO: In this week's article, the Reader outlines how the city maintains what is essentially a second budget, which it refuses to release. Even aldermen only get to see TIF information for their own wards. Not the big picture. And this is significant because the mayor controls a pot of TIF money that has grown to $1 billion, one-sixth the size of the entire budget. With so much money going to TIF, property taxes in non-TIF district have to go up to cover the money that's not going to the general revenue fund. Imagine how this budget would look if we weren't dealing with this huge TIF problem -- and a lot of the money going to corporations to remodel buildings and such.

"People have been getting upset about TIF for years," co-host Jack Conaty added, "I think it's going to peak here shortly."

Let's hope that the debate comes sooner rather than later. After all, with a little creative thinking, the city's $1 billion surplus could go a long way in solving this year's budget crisis. Before that can happen, however, the mayor is going to have to come clean on what TIF money is already committed. In a column on Friday, Crain's Greg Hinz urged the Daley administration to "cut the bull." "It's our money," Hinz wrote. "You clearly have a pretty good idea how you intend to spend it, so tell us." We couldn't agree more.

A Glimmer Of Hope: The TIF Debate Hits The Chicago Airwaves

Angela Caputo — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:21:23 -0700

During Mayor Daley's budget address yesterday, we listened closely to see if he would make any mention of Chicago's other budget: the $1 billion in taxpayer dollars currently sitting in off-the-books tax increment financing (TIF) accounts. To no one's surprise, the mayor glossed over how this mayoral "piggy bank" -- which last year siphoned off $552 million from local taxing bodies like the schools and parks -- factored into his long-term thinking about the city's finances. That's because the mayor already has his own quiet plans for handing out the public funds, according to documents (PDF) obtained by the Reader's Ben Joravsky and Mick Dumke. They explain the significance in their new, must-read cover story:

[T]he money's supposed to be used to subsidize economic development in depressed communities that would otherwise receive no investment. But according to aldermen, and as the TIF documents we obtained show, the program is used to help clout-heavy developers and corporations, pay for basic infrastructure and services without the public oversight given the official budget, and strengthen the political position of the mayor. [...]

By moving more necessary expenditures into the secret budget that he ultimately controls, the mayor also wields even more power over every public entity, from the City Council to the public schools to the Park District. At various times at least half a dozen aldermen have told us that mayoral aides pressure them on key votes—such as the ordinances for funding the Olympics or moving the Children's Museum to Grant Park—by either promising to give their wards more TIF dollars or threatening to take TIF dollars away.

Bingo. While we have no way of tracking which TIF projects successfully deliver an economic boost and which don't, we do know this: The TIF system allows Mayor Daley to curry favor with Chicago's corporate elite while keeping the City Council in lock-step with his agenda.

In recent months, we've repeatedly highlighted how tens of millions of dollars from the downtown TIF accounts are regularly used to subsidize the renovations of swanky new corporate offices in the Loop. It's infuriating to watch these giveaways (United Airlines secured $50 million from the city in just the past two years) at a time when Chicago faces a $520 million budget shortfall. During an appearance on WFLD's Good Day Chicago this morning, the Better Government Association's Andy Shaw used our favored term for this ongoing practice: "corporate welfare." "We are subsidizing wealthy developers and all kinds of people who are friends and cronies of the administration when our taxes are sky-high," he said, holding up a copy of Joravsky and Dumke's article. "And this is wrong because we need transparency here." Watch it:

SHAW: This is corporate welfare. We are subsidizing wealthy developers and all kinds of people who are friends and cronies of the administration when our taxes are sky-high. The point is this budget is not scrutinized by the public. It's not scrutinized by the City Council. You can's see it online. The mayor, people in his department, and some aldermen make $1 billion worth of spending decisions essentially in the dark. And this is wrong because we need transparency here. Maybe the projects are worthwhile but we need a vigorous debate when you spend $1 billion tax dollars -- and that means the rest of our tax dollars are higher -- you need a debate over whether those are good or bad projects and we're not having that.

Unfortunately, as the Reader article details, the Daley administration doesn't seem to be slowing down:

In May the City Council voted in favor of giving $3.8 million in TIF funding to Willis Holdings Group, the [Willis Tower's] chief tenant, and earlier this month it signed off on $35 million in subsidies to help United Airlines cover the cost of moving into the 110-story skyscraper.

But according to the internal budget, the city has "pending" plans to spend still more—$13 million in 2010 and another $15 million in 2011—for a line item called "Willis Tower Rehab & Modernization Project." [...]

Yet according to Second Ward alderman Robert Fioretti, Jack George, a lawyer for American Landmark, has been pushing for the city to spend up to $200 million in TIF dollars on the building. "George first came to me two summers ago, in 2008," says Fioretti. "I'm still fighting [him] over that—it's a lot of money for one building."

Some aldermen broke the code of silence on TIF earlier in the year, joining Alds. Manny Flores (1st Ward) and Scott Waguespack (32nd Ward) in passing the TIF Sunshine Ordinance. While the city still has a long way to go in meeting the new disclosure requirements, the fact that some officials are beginning to pressure the mayor to reconsider his TIF priorities is certainly encouraging. But in closing out just two TIF districts as part of the new budget -- thereby returning a mere$8 million back to the general fund this year -- it's clear that the mayor isn't going to part with his slush fund easily. On WTTW's Chicago Tonight yesterday, the Metropolitan Planning Council's Peter Skosey said that the mayor's latest action is a reminder that "we ought to be looking at the other 160 TIF districts that are there." Watch it (full video here):

"The TIF district money should be included somewhere in this budget," Ald. Fioretti added. We couldn't agree more and hope to hear other prominent voices join that chorus as the city budget process unfolds over the next few weeks.