Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Daley Denounces Assessor's Property Tax Plan

By Fran Spielman, Sun-Times

Mayor Daley today denounced as a “political stunt” Assessor Jim Houlihan’s plan to siphon money away from Chicago’s tax-increment-financing (TIF) districts to help struggling homeowners pay soaring property tax bills.

Under the Cook County assessor’s so-called “circuit breaker” plan, local government agencies would establish an emergency fund that would grant up to $700 of relief to homeowners who spend more than five percent of their income on property taxes.

Houlihan suggested several ways to pay for the tax relief, including using a portion of the one percentage point increase in the Cook County sales tax and raiding excess TIF funds.

On Tuesday, Daley ridiculed the TIF idea.

“You cannot use TIF funds against state law. That’s a P.R. stunt. It’s all by state law. Everybody knows that. You can’t use TIF money for anything like that. It’s impossible. It’s like a political stunt or something,” Daley said. Continue Reading

5 comments:

  1. "You cannot use TIF funds against state law. That’s a P.R. stunt. It’s all by state law. Everybody knows that. You can’t use TIF money for anything like that."

    Because we all know Daley and Chicago are just paragons of following the letter of the law.

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  2. So using TIF funds with dubious justification = OK, using TIF funds to help homeowners = bad.

    Hmmm, whats the difference, oh I know, Hizzzzonor won't control the money if it goes to homeowners. We can't have that now can we.

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  3. As if Meigs Field wasn't a political stunt?

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  4. Yep and we are the only major city with no heliports in our downtown.

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  5. My toy ... no mine. Try to take the cash cow away from Daley and the machine and you'll see the biggest political brawl this city has seen in years.

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