TIFs Need More Transparency
Crain’s Chicago Business has a short and understated article talking about a new study that says that TIFs need more transparency. That study wins the understatement of the year award in my book. TIFs are what we used to call “slush funds”. Use em on whatever you want, no political repercussions. I can’t even find a central location with a list of where the SSAs and TIFs are (pdf), let alone what the money is being spent on. The NCBG has a pretty good report, but really. If these are so great the city should really have the info available in a central location, showing all the great things they are doing with the money. And I can’t find anything on the SSAs.
I guess we just have to hope that our tax money is being spent well.
Great to see that Crain’s is catching up with the Chicago Reader.
Yeah, the reader is who turned me onto this TIF stuff in the first place. Those are really great articles. I only wish that the Trib or the Sun Times would do similar work.
I really wish that the Reader had the Trib or Sun-Times’ budget, since I don’t expect either of those papers to ever be anywhere near as aggressive in reporting on how corrupt the city power structure is.