The following story in DNAinfo.com is important to read and understand. Polished politicians like Ald. Pat O'Connor who are very close to corporate interests, have to play this fine line between appeasing constituents who are upset their kids will have 40 students in their classrooms, and the need to give corporations and private universities tax payer subsidies.
First and foremost, Ald. O'Connor said the funding problem is the pensions. Nobody questioned that. That is his talking point and the reason he continues to be an alderman for all these years. He sucked up to Mayor Daley for years, now he sucks up to Mayor Rahm.
Little pensioners who paid into the system for all these years can go to you know what, for all he cares. But he can say he never said that.
Let's be clear, he's sucking up to corporate cash that needs tax payer dollars more than the tax payers, they'll have you believe. (It's called Capitalism!)
His exchange on the TIF question is also telling. He says, like every alderman is paid to say, that TIFs are complicated. If the city didn't have TIF's, then the city would have to buy bonds. Really? The city would buy bonds to finance the Willis Towers (which fighting Ald. Bob Fioretti backed) and DePaul stadium? That's infrastructure?
He then says the schools are already getting TIF money? Really, after how much was taken away and given to developers and others too smart to risk their own money.
He can get away with it as long as there is no one in the room who knows more than him about this stuff. Just like the federal govern. can get away with awarding Wall Street thieves via not regulating "derivatives" by saying, "it's too complicated."
An informed citizenry is the worst headache for the ruling 1%. They need people to focus on Stanley Cups, crime and abortion. You know, TIFs and pension reform, let your "elected officials" do what's best on those things.
Ald. O'Connor's Town Hall Meeting Focuses on Using TIF Money for Schools
By Patty Wetli on July 2, 2013
DNAInfo.com
LINCOLN SQUARE — During the third of six town hall meetings scheduled throughout his ward, Ald. Patrick O'Connor (40th) offered up
dates on park improvements, a proposed Metra station at Peterson Avenue and street resurfacing projects, but it was the topic of CPS budget cuts that dominated the Q&A portion of the evening.
Ellen O'Keefe, a 28-year veteran CPS teacher, questioned whether it was appropriate to spend money on boathouses and the West Ridge Nature Preserve, a 20-acre plot of land bought by the city from Rosehill Cemetery, when the budgets of schools across the city are being slashed by hundreds of thousands, and in some cases millions, of dollars.
Speaking to an audience of nearly 50 constituents gathered at Swedish Covenant Hospital's Anderson Pavilion, O'Connor countered that the Chicago Board of Education's finances are separate from the Chicago Park District's.
"They're two separate tax entities," said the alderman, adding that by law, the park district is prohibited from simply handing over money to CPS.
If Chicago is to become a world-class city, improvements to parks and investment in neighborhoods are key, said O'Connor.
"Recreational opportunities make this a safer neighborhood," he said.
Not everyone was persuaded by his argument.
"Families will leave the city," said Adenia Linker, 40th Ward resident and CPS parent. "It won't matter what Metra stations we have."
Ann McKenzie, a CPS parent, continued to press the issue of the budget cuts.
"Forty-two children in my daughter's eighth-grade class is not acceptable," she said. She asked what parents could be doing to help restore funds.
"How we get more money" is dependent on resolving the city's and state's massive pension obligations, O'Connor said.
"We have to make some changes," he said, pointing to a "lack of leadership on a ton of people's part."
The alderman backed plans to raise the retirement age for public employees such as police officers and firefighters, to increase employees' pension contributions and to lower cost-of-living pension increases. A looming deadline to fund the Chicago Teachers Union pension by 2014 — after a series of pension holidays — should be eliminated or moved further out, he said.
"If the state rolls that back, that gives us $300 million back," said O'Connor. "If I was a parent, I'd be calling my legislator and saying, 'You need to get on board with this.'"
With reform currently stalled in Springfield, Linker called on the alderman to support a push by parents to return a Tax Increment Financing surplus to CPS.
In a TIF district, tax revenue generated by increased property values goes into a special fund earmarked for improvements in the district. It does not go to taxing bodies like the school system.
"The schools in our ward will lose $5.5 million in budget cuts," Linker said.
O'Connor's response: TIF money already goes to the schools.
Citing a $15 million addition to Mather High School — the alderman's alma mater — and a $13 million project at Peterson Elementary, O'Connor said, "TIF [money] is the only money the board of education has available for infrastructure."
Though attendees brought up the $55 million proposed arena for DePaul University as an example of abuse of TIF money, O'Connor asserted TIF money was vital for development not only to attract industry and jobs but to finance public facilities such as libraries and police stations.
"The answers are not always as simple as people would lead you to believe," he said. "If we didn't have [TIF districts], you'd be paying for it in bonds."
The City Council has, in fact, plowed TIF money back into the budget every year for the past five years, measures for which he voted, said O'Connor.
"Every taxing body gets their money back," he noted. "You can't just give it to CPS."
Linker, who had attempted to arrange a private meeting with O'Connor's staff regarding the TIF surplus, believed she'd made some headway in raising the issue in a public setting.
"I think I heard him say he would support" using TIF money for the schools, Linker said after the town hall.
A youth wellness educator with a background in social and emotional health, Linker said she's concerned about the effects school closings and budget cuts will have on students, particularly those with special needs.
"I see it from the balcony," she said, "and it's a mess."
No comments:
Post a Comment