To appreciate the significance of Mayor Rahm’s retreat on Lincoln Yards and the 78 projects, let me take you back in time to a previous TIF debate.
When Hugh Devlin, a Rogers Park activist, testified against the TIF, former alderman Burt Natarus cut him off, bellowing—oh, what does it matter? Back then Burt was always bellowing about something.
Bowing to Lightfoot’s wishes, Mayor Rahm asked the council to postpone the vote on the $2.4 billion projects, saying: “I made it very clear to the mayor-elect that I would not move forward on these projects if she wanted to delay the process.”
I’ll calm down by pointing out that this fight is far from over. Again, it’s only a postponement. For all I know, advocates for both TIF deals may have already bamboozled Lightfoot into complying with their demands by the time you’re reading this.
At the very least, city officials have got to start telling the truth about Tax Increment Financing. Currently, this is far from the case. For instance, Alderman Patrick O’Connor, outgoing finance committee chair, recently told the Sun-Times: “I think [Lightfoot] might be happy for the cash infusion coming in over the course of the next 20 years from those potential projects.”
Instead, all the new property taxes generated in these TIFs will be used to pay for the projects. In the case of Lincoln Yards, Sterling Bay, the developer, will essentially take property tax dollars that would otherwise go to schools and police and fire, etc. and spend them on themselves. Great deal for Sterling Bay, not so great for the rest of us who will have to come up with new property tax dollars to compensate for the ones we’re not getting from Lincoln Yards.
