CHICAGO MAYORAL CANDIDATE RAHM EMANUEL FOCUSES ON TIF REFORM AS PART OF HIS GOVERNMENT REINVENTION AND FISCAL SUSTAINABILITY AGENDA

Last week, Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel released his Government Reinvention and Fiscal Sustainability Agenda, which proposes more than $500 million in efficiency measures focusing on the reinvention of City government by improving transparency and accountability.  As part of this Agenda, Mr. Emanuel has singled out Chicago’s TIF Program to improve accountability, create jobs and hire more police officers.

The TIF reform proposal would require the City to make all financial and spending information available on-line and require TIF spending to be fully integrated into the City’s formal budget process.  Also, a panel comprised of economic development and financial experts would be created to establish certain return-on-investment goals for each TIF district in order to increase job creation and to limit the terms of TIF districts that have achieved their growth targets.

Based on information from the Emanuel campaign’s website, the TIF reform plan is estimated to make $50 million in property tax resources available for municipal services, including $25 million which would be earmarked to hire an additional 250 police officers who would target crime in economically distressed TIF areas.  TIF funds usually cannot be used for operational expenditures, so this would stretch the common statutory interpretation, or it might require a legislative change to the existing TIF statute.

Chicago’s mayoral election takes place on February 22nd.  If no single candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, a run-off election between the top 2 candidates would take place on April 5th.

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