By Fran Spielman, Chicago Sun-TimesChicago taxpayers lost $1.2 million in funds generated by the now-defunct Central Loop tax-increment-financing district — and spent $329,000 for ineligible art work — because of improper spending and oversight of TIF’s, Inspector General Joe Ferguson concluded today.
Five weeks after targeting “widespread” fraud, abuse and mismanagement of Chicago’s minority contracting program, Ferguson dropped another audit bombshell on Mayor Daley’s favorite economic development tool. Continue Reading
make sure you read the whole article and be sure you understand that the author does this for a living....
ReplyDeleteNot endorsing anyone here just sayin'!
Hmmm, I wonder, might you and I be noticing the same thing? I mean besides the ironic spelling error?
ReplyDeleteOkay, let us in on the boo-boo. The only things I noticed were the inability to spell "Millennium" correctly (how did anyone make it through Year 2000 without learning "2 Ls and 2 Ns"?) and the varying does-it-have-an-apostrophe-or-not plural of TIF.
ReplyDeleteNice catches, Caring Neighbor! I completely missed “Millenium.” As for the plural of TIF, I think you have to say “TIF districts.” :-)
ReplyDeleteIt sure looks like The Sun-Times has let go of one too many copy editors, the ones who know the difference between, say, “judgement” and judgment.
As for the real nugget in this article, I think it's best we let the Aldermanic candidates find it.
I can't remember the last time I read an article on the Sun-Times web site or, for that matter, LEN, that didn't have glaring grammatical errors. Often the articles are riddled with them. What's worse is that proper copy-editing also ensures clarity, which is often lacking in these articles. With some articles, I've had a hard time following the pronoun soup to figure out who said/did what to whom, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe news industry, in print or online, continues its slow spiral downward.
Isn't the real news not how common spelling and grammatical error are, but that the Times and the Trib are finally reporting on TIF fraud??????
ReplyDeleteFraud? Not quite. The city isn’t breaking the law, per se. Rather, it is taking full advantage of the opportunities available under the law as written. Fine line, I know.
ReplyDeleteAs for what the inspector general reported, the infractions found are all relatively small items in the TIF scheme of things and will be remedied, just like any other error revealed by an audit (the real miracle here, btw, is the audit).
Look, the wonky walking among us has been screaming about tax increment financing for more than a decade. In fact, when I ran for office awhile back, TIF reform was central to my campaign. Others have followed suit but no matter how any of us have framed the issue for retail consumption, there has been a real, almost stubborn reluctance to "get it."
Maybe when candidates say something (anything) it gets tossed into the 'politicians are liars' bucket. Maybe municipal finance is just one of those things that make most peoples’ eyes glaze over. Who knows. But for the mainstream media to be THIS late to pick up this issue is hardly a cause for celebration. Two reasons...
One, the dailies are not reliable. You can trust Ben Ben Joravsky to get it right. You can trust Jason Lietchy and John Paul Jones and a handful of others to get it right. But the Tribune and the Sun-Times? For heaven’s sake, they are struggling with spelling.
Two, there’s a utility problem. Ponder this: What friggin’ good has this top-shelf media coverage wrought? Zero. Not sure about this claim? Consider this: STAR Bond legislation (think TIF on crack) just sailed through the statehouse this session as though nothing--and I mean absolutely nothing--has been learned about exempting tax revenue from the appropriations process.
But I digress . . . ;-)))