Upon hearing the news that Mayor Rahm plans to close seven downtown TIF districts sometime in the near future, I got almost as excited as a hockey fan on the night the Hawks clinched the Stanley Cup.
Tresser is the north-side activist who formed the TIF Illumination Project, a local watchdog group that holds public meetings where, among other things, he shows locals what the city would never show them in a million years.
The only reason we know about this secret hoard is—like everything else connected with this program—a long story.
On the one hand, he didn’t want up to upset parents who were demanding that he return the TIF slush to the schools from which it was diverted in the first place.
But, he added, almost all of that money is already allocated for projects not mentioned in the annual reports.
The city said, Sorry, Tom—this is too much information for us to get together. So you’re just going to have to take our word when we say most of the $1.7 billion is obligated.
