Daley defends not raiding special taxing district money to balance budget
Mayor Richard Daley today defended the city’s reliance on special taxing districts to pay for building and renovation projects and said his administration will do a better job educating the public on the benefits.
Critics contend that tax-increment financing districts wrongly withhold hundreds of millions of dollars each year from cash-strapped government.
Speaking to reporters today after an event in the Brighton Park neighborhood promoting a tree planting program, Daley said the taxing districts are good for Chicago.
“To be perfectly frank, I think it’s just a lack of marketing about what they do and account for,” Daley said. “We just have to show, with better marketing, we have to show what the benefits to the community are.”
“We would not be doing these things in the community if you didn’t have TIF money,” Daley said.
But City Hall faces an increasingly dire financial situation and Daley is proposing to dip deep into proceeds from the 75-year lease of Chicago’s parking meters to help close a $550 million budget hole. And now some aldermen have called for the tax district money to be freed up for more pressing needs.
Ald. Thomas Allen, 38th, has argued the city should use the proceeds to pay police officers and firefighters.
Since the tax district funds are replenished each year, Allen said it makes more sense to use them than the one-time meter lease reserves to address the city’s financial woes.
Daley’s new budget proposal includes about $8 million that will be returned to city general fund because two of the tax districts have run their course and will not be extended.