Chicago Daily Observer

In a recent comment on a blog post, Paul N. Keller, one of my favorite TIF attorneys, suggested that I haven’t read the state’s TIF act.

Oh my god, that is just, like, so not true. The state’s TIF act is one of my favorite reads. I keep a copy of it by my bed and read a passage every night before I go to sleep. It’s terse, transparent, and immediately comprehensible to anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of English.

Now that Barack Obama has secured the nomination of Democratic candi­date for president, he and his handlers are ramping up their efforts to immunize him from his Chicago past.

We’ve already seen him distance himself from the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, quit Trinity church, criticize Father Pfleger, and downplay his early ties to Tony Rezko.

But Mayor Daley presents a stickier wicket. He’s a big-city boss who has presided over a corrupt, inefficiently run, high-tax government for years. While Obama has mildly disapproved of a few of the most noto­rious scandals, he enthusiastically endorsed the mayor in the last election. They even share David Axelrod as a campaign strategist.

First the good news: The city deferred action on its latest proposal for licensing concert promoters, originally set for tomorrow’s City Council meeting.

Some people have been naive enough to call it a victory, but don’t be fooled. The delay doesn’t protect all the small promoters and club owners and not-for-profits who want to throw fund-raising bashes. It’s merely what one alderman calls a “tactical retreat” on the part of the mayor.

Here’s the deal from several good City Hall sources, including an alderman or two.

The vendor’s licensing bill (commonly known as the promoter’s ordinance) has been resurrected because Mayor Daley wants it, and no one in City Hall has the guts to tell the mayor he can’t have what he wants.

Today’s Tribune offered former governor Jim Thompson’s promise of a solution to one of most baffling mysteries of our time: How the state can buy and fix up Wrigley Field without spending any public money.

Thompson, now head of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, claimed to have solved what the article termed this “seemingly intractable puzzle.”

Unfortunately, Thompson offered few specifics, nor did he give up much of anything to the Sun-Times. In essence, his message amounted to “Trust me, you’ll see, there are ways . . .”

The revelations keep coming in the lawsuit to keep the Latin School from building a soccer field in Lincoln Park.

North-side residents have formed a group called the Committee to Keep Lincoln Park Public and are suing the city, the Park District, and Latin, asking Judge Dorothy Kirie Kinnaird to issue a restraining order to block further construction, in part because the field was never approved by the Chicago Plan Commission, as required by the city’s lakefront protection ordinance. The field’s already about 60 percent completed.

Last Friday, during day one of the proceedings, it was revealed that the city hadn’t even acquired a building permit for the project. A lawyer for the city claimed that the Park District and Latin didn’t need one to build a large Astroturf field with bleachers, a scoreboard, and drainage pipes. A back porch would be another matter.

Did you know you can dig a huge hole in Lincoln Park without a permit?

That’s just one of the revelations that came out of Friday’s opening hearing in the lawsuit filed by the Committee to Keep Lincoln Park Public, a group of north-side residents looking to keep the Latin School from building a soccer field just east of the zoo.

The residents say there are many reasons to oppose the soccer field deal the Park District struck with Latin back in October 2006. But on Friday they asked Cook County Circuit Court judge Dorothy Kirie Kinnaird to issue a temporary restraining order to block further construction on the grounds that the Park District never got a building permit to construct the field.

I’m going to have to start charging Mayor Daley for all the advice I’ve been giving him for free.

Last year, I wrote a story saying if Daley “really wants to bring the Olympics to Chicago, I suggest he move the site of the proposed equestrian center out of Lake County.”

My point was that he was stirring up more local opposition than he could handle with his plans to stick stables, riding paths, a 15,000-seat stadium, and a barn in the middle of the Lakewood Forest Preserve.

he Chicago Park District is so short of funds it’s cutting programs, raising fees, and telling community groups that if they want a playlot, soccer field, or running track, they’ll need to raise the money themselves. Nevertheless, it has somehow found roughly $22 million to spend on Streeterville real estate for its central office. The district has been renting there since 2001, and officials say the conversion to ownership, which the board approved in February, will save about $720,000 a year in property taxes.

Geraldine A. Ferraro missed the point by concentrating on Sen. Barack Obama’s race to explain his rapid rise in politics. If you want to understand Obama, think Harry S. Truman.

On the surface, they don’t seem to have much in common. Truman was old and crusty when he came on the national scene—Obama is new and fresh.

But in a way you could look at them both as a couple of machine politicians working to overcome their provincial roots as they move to the national stage.

In Truman’s case, he rose to prominence thanks to his ties to Mayor Thomas J. Pendergast’s infamously corrupt political machine in Kansas City, Mo.

For the last few months I’ve been making bets with other political junkies on who will make the first move if Barack Obama’s senate seat becomes vacant.

Early guesses were split between U.S. reps Jesse Jackson and Jan Schakowsky.

Looks like the smart money was on Schakowsky.

Over the weekend on Carol Marin’s talk show City Desk, the congresswoman from Evanston said she was interested in being appointed, adding: “I think it is unseemly and untimely right now to do much beyond stating my interest in that.”

The last time a Park District advisory council weighed in on the Olympics, it didn’t come down on the side Mayor Daley wanted. That was back in July, when the Jackson Park Advisory Council passed a resolution against the city’s proposal to build a temporary 20,000-seat field hockey arena in the south lakefront park, part of its bid for the 2016 Olympics.

Well, this oughta teach ’em a lesson: In February Park District superintendent Tim Mitchell introduced a draft of revised guidelines that would impose stiff new conditions for membership in local park advisory councils, including criminal background checks. They’ve been sent to several advisory councils for review, but the Park District itself has the final decision.

You never know what injustice is going to stir the soul of a Chicago alderman.

For instance, a few days ago aldermen Tom Allen (38th Ward) and George Cardenas (12th Ward) were moved to outrage by the $75,000 Shakman compensation award to Jay Stone, son of alderman Bernard Stone (50th Ward).

Federal monitor Noelle Brennan awarded Stone the money on the grounds that his 2003 campaign for 32nd Ward alderman was unfairly torpedoed by the throngs of patronage workers who were dispatched by Donald Tomczak to work for Ted Matlak, the incumbent.

“We’ve got potholes to fix. We spend $20 million on snow removal and the federal monitor decides in her infinite wisdom to give somebody $75,000 because they lost an election? Can I sign up for that program?”

South Loop voters gave Second Ward alderman Robert Fioretti the power

The South Loop has historically been a neighborhood without a political identity. In other parts of the city, neighborhoods are closely identified with their political geography. Rogers Park has long been part of the independent-minded 49th Ward on the far north side. On the far south side, Beverly is known as the heart of the 19th, the base of the South Side Irish. And Bridgeport, the home of mayors and the center of Chicago clout, is always, always, always in the 11th.

It’s almost enough to make you feel sorry for Sam Zell. All the guy’s doing is asking for a handout, the sort of thing Mayor Daley dishes out to developers all the time.

“The Trib’s Selling and We’re Not Buying,” read the front page of today’s Sun-Times. “Only Sam Zell and his Tribune Co., owners of the ballpark, stand to gain. And in an economic downturn, only the taxpayers stand to lose.”

The headline and accompanying editorial—which had me cheering over my morning coffee—are referring to the state’s proposal to use sales taxes to buy and rebuild Wrigley Field so whoever owns the Cubs can sell more tickets and concessions and make more money.

Just when the public has finally begun to show signs of seeing through the fog that surrounds tax increment financing, the state has floated the idea of a rigging up a new kind of TIF. When Sam Zell bought the Tribune Company, vowing to break it up and sell off the pieces, one of the most valuable pieces was the Cubs, Wrigley Field included. In January former governor Jim Thompson, chair of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, revealed that Zell had come to him and Governor Blagojevich with a proposal to have the state buy Wrigley and use public money to pay for its makeover.

February 19 was a busy day at City Hall, as city officials gave the Daley administration the OK to jack up property taxes by untold hundreds of millions of dollars, virtually handed the mayor those millions to spend as he pleases, and threatened to kick a bunch of seniors out of their west-side homes.

The action was at the monthly meeting of the Community Development Commission, the mayorally appointed advisory group of lawyers, developers, city department heads and other Daley allies in charge of forking over TIF dollars. As you should know by now, TIFs place a cap on the amount of property taxes that go to the city, schools, parks, and other taxing bodies, diverting additional revenue ostensibly to fund development in districts deemed “blighted.” At this particular session the CDC recommended that the City Council approve the proposed Ogden/Pulaski tax increment financing district, which would encompass ... Read More...

He’s at it again.

In this week’s Works, I wrote about a recent press conference where Mayor Daley denounced the county assessor’s office and called for widespread “corrections” to property tax assessments.

Now, in today’s Tribune, there’s an op-ed by the mayor

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-oped0213daleyfeb13,0,4892131.story

that tells a few more whoppers about his role in our property tax system.

Matt Farmer’s a hotshot trial lawyer in a downtown firm who plays in a rock ’n’ roll band on the side and rarely gets involved in local politics. But since the Chicago Public Schools kicked his kindergarten daughter in the teeth, he’s been an activist unleashed, sending snarky e-mails to reporters, school officials, and parents on the northwest side. The issue on his mind is Arne Duncan’s plan to move the Edison Regional Gifted Center out of its longtime home at 6220 N. Olcott and into the same building that houses Albany Park Multicultural Academy, at 4910 N. Sawyer, about five miles down the road.

It’s not just the move that bothers him—it’s the way the news was delivered. He and the other parents of students at Edison, a selective-enrollment elementary school with 270 students, were on the receiving end of the sort of top-down marching orders CPS generally ... Read More...

The race for commissioner of the Cook County Board of Review is getting a little ridiculous, as each day seems to bring a new flyer from the candidates raising issues that bear no relevance to the office.

Over the weekend, for instance, I got a mailing from incumbent commissioner Joseph Berrios telling me that Berrios favors “clean air and water” and “better schools.”

That came on the heels of a mailing from Berrios calling for a property tax freeze.

It was one step forward and two steps back at the January 8 meeting of the Community Development Commission, the mayorally appointed board that oversees the city’s tax increment financing districts. The good news is that a bigger crowd than usual—several dozen residents—showed up to protest the latest boondoggles. The bad news is that the CDC approved them anyway, including the second-largest TIF handout in the history of the program: $75 million to help Rush University Medical Center rebuild and expand its hospital campus.

On November 5, Roy Jones got the bad news from the Cook County treasurer’s office: the property taxes on his west-side condo have doubled. Shorenstein Properties, owner of the John Hancock building, is having a much better month: the tax bill for the iconic skyscraper is down 14.6 percent from last year.

A few weeks ago I was talking with some of my fellow TIF geeks about our favorite municipal subject, and we decided to make a friendly wager.

How large was last year’s TIF tax? Or to put it in measurable terms, how much did the city take in property taxes to feed its 150-some tax increment financing districts?

You’d think this would be an easy question to answer. After all, the Daley administration posts the city budget on its Web page, and the mayor provides a figure during his budget address every year. But that doesn’t give the whole picture. Last year the mayor said he was levying about $720 million in property taxes. In fact, it was much more if you add in the TIFs.

The first thing you need to know about Mayor Daley’s budget, released on October 10, is that it’s nothing more than a projection. The mayor’s bean counters calculate how much money the city can expect to take in through fees, fines, and taxes over the next year and balance that against the amount they plan to spend. If, one year later, the city brings in more or spends less than anticipated, there’s a surplus and taxpayers would theoretically get a refund (ha ha ha). If it brings in less or spends more, there’s a deficit, requiring new fees and taxes to make up the difference.

Could a 20,000-seat Olympic field hockey arena really leave Jackson Park unspoiled?

A couple weeks ago Mayor Daley took his Olympics dog-and-pony show to the Walt Disney Magnet School on the north side, far from the south-side neighborhood parks that will be overtaken if his plans for the 2016 games go through.

As PR spectacles go, it was pretty impressive. The stage was filled with Olympic stars. The auditorium was packed with kids hopped-up to be out of class and eager to cheer on cue for the TV cameras.

Governor Blagojevich’s last-minute bailout spared CTA riders long-threatened doomsday hikes in fares and cuts in services—for the moment. Still, without a permanent tax hike to close the budget gap of $110 million a year the CTA is likely to slash bus routes and raise fares to as much as $3 a ride. At the same time, the local property tax machine is gearing up to send out property tax bills that will jump as much as 100 percent for some home owners. And what’s the city’s response to this pending crisis?

The city has reserved the right to wipe out this block for a developer to be named later.

In 1994, Imre Hidvegi and Edgar Alvarez opened Chicago Soccer, a soccer supply store, in a vacant storefront on the 4800 block of North Western. “It was just the two of us, and we did maybe $50,000 in business” to start, says Hidvegi.

Congressman Luis Gutierrez decides he’ll run for reelection after all, leaving Manny Flores with a big decision.

You might say that the residents and activists of Edgewater have their backs against the wall.

In recent months the city’s given them an ultimatum: if you want $8 million to save affordable housing for senior citizens, you’d better endorse the proposed Hollywood/Sheridan tax increment financing district, which will wind up costing taxpayers about $75 million in property tax dollars…....