By law, TIFs are intended to promote economic development in blighted areas, and this is just another example of the widespread disregard of the law regarding TIF development. Can anyone call the Loop, the center of business in downtown Chicago, “blighted?” Not likely.

Why are taxpayers on the hook for subsidizing such developments, all under the guise of TIF? Cook County collected $875 million from taxpayers in TIF money in 2008. How much of this went to economic development in blighted areas?

Check out Cook County Clerk David Orr’s TIF reports, and you’ll see development after development in the least of blighted areas, like the Loop and Lincoln Park.

Taxpayers, do you live in a TIF district? Is it blighted? Take these questions to your elected officials and ask them why your property tax dollars are being funneled into a TIF instead of your schools, parks or libraries. Only when the public starts taking action on the TIF issue will any true reform occur.

Mayoral candidates looking to fill Daley’s seat are starting to talk TIF, calling for more transparency and questioning the practice of creating TIF districts in areas that are not exactly blighted.

TIF is an issue that needs to be talked about more and more so people can start better understanding it and start realizing its significant impact on their communities and pocketbooks. It’s good to see TIF has the potential to be a central issue in Chicago’s mayoral race.

For more information about TIF, see the Illinois Policy Institute’s take on the topic.

According to the report, ACE sells coffee, cups, lids, sports drinks, water, tea and snacks and also has contracts with the Illinois Tollway Authority, Community Consolidated School District 54 (Schaumburg), the Oak Park Township Senior Services Nutrition Program, the University of Illinois and the Illinois State Board of Education.

In addition, ACE is an active political contributor, giving “almost $30,000 to local politicians and political committees since 2000,” with a majority of contributions ($20,250) going to “political committees affiliated with longtime 14th Ward Alderman and Democratic Committeeman Edward M. Burke.”

This game of connect the dots brings up some questions, and The Prairie Stater’s article demonstrates why government transparency is so important, allowing the public and media to find these connections between spending and political relationships. For more details, check out the full story here.

Check out its check register here and see where your tax dollars are going.

ABC 7′s I-Team found some interesting expenses of note, such as $6,243.75 to CROE TV (which stands for Coalition for the remembrance of the honorable Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam for more than 40 years) for “Consulting Services” in January 2010; $2,000 for new portraits of most commissioners; and, tens of thousands went to landscaping around county buildings and the jail.

What will you find?

Read ABC’s report and check out their revealing video as well.

This is a great step in the right direction for Cook County.

Now, with this transparency provided, the people, media and elected officials need to use the information and start figuring out where spending is necessary and working well, and where it is unnecessary and should be cut.

Transparency is just the first step in making government more efficient and cost-effective, now the hard work of looking into the spending and doing something about waste is required.

According to Cook County, its Open County Initiative website “provides easy access to areas of information, records and data transparency throughout the county and “additional information will be included as it is made available online.”

Check it out and see what you think.

Check it out out here!

It’s interesting to note the Illinois Policy Institute received a Transparency Pledge from Stroger last May, but we could not post him in our list of pledge signatories on OpenIllinois.org because he wrote the word “responsible” two times into the pledge, leaving him to decide what was “responsible” transparency and therefore worthwhile transparency. Stroger is the only person who reworked the Transparency Pledge this way.

For more from the Daily Herald and Todd Stroger’s actions “in the interest of transparency,” click here. 

The ordinance, unfortunately, hasn’t produced the results so eagerly anticipated, according to the Chicagoist:

One of the goals of having public documents online is to encourage people to easily access any and all information they’re looking for – and find additional information related to the topics they’re interested in. Alds. Manny Flores (1st) and Scott Waguespack (32nd) said, at the beginning of their push for the ordinance last year, that their goal was to prevent a second Republic Windows and Doors fiasco (the city lost millions of dollars because it failed to police its redundant TIF agreements). Instead, if one clicks on too many links (apparently more than four), the site collapses.

There’s too much money involved in TIF for the public to have such a lack of knowledge about them and for the government to have no accountability in creating and managing them. This first showing of so-called TIF transparency does not do the job.

This is not a familiar concept in Chicago architecturally or otherwise.

In addition to the Sears Tower, the Windy City is known nationwide for less favorable attributes, namely corruption and an underhanded political culture. We are “the city that works” – although how, nobody is exactly sure.

Getting a clear look at Chicago politics used to be about as difficult as getting a clear look at the city itself, until now. It turns out the new glass boxes reaching 1,353 feet up in the air have attracted considerable interest.  Chicagoans apparently like the idea of transparency and for $14.95 it’s a deal. Let’s see if we can carry this interest to City Hall and statewide because, after all, we’re paying a lot more than that for a government as opaque as they come.