Standing near the elevated train line that runs above West Lake Street on Wednesday morning, Mayor Richard M. Daley pointed to the construction of the city’s first new El station in a decade and said the mass-transit stop would not be under construction but for his administration’s use of tax-increment financing.
A day after he inaugurated a new, TIF-funded park on the North Side, Daley’s news conference on the Near West Side marked the second time in two days that the mayor has touted the benefits of the economic-development tool. Daley has responded testily to critics who note that TIF lets City Hall use huge sums of tax dollars that otherwise would go to schools, the park district and other local taxing bodies.
City officials said the city is using $30 million in TIF funds toward the $38 million Morgan Street station on the CTA’s Green and Pink Line, with the rest of the project’s budget to come from the federal government.
“Think of that,” Daley said. “If we didn’t have this TIF, we wouldn’t even be here. I wouldn’t even have a press conference … That’s how important TIFs are. It helps business, homeowners and basically puts a lot of people to work.”
With the city facing a record deficit of more than $650 million, some aldermen have called on Daley to raid TIF accounts to help balance the city’s budget. The mayor’s budget director recently said that option was under consideration, and Daley is not scheduled to present his proposed budget for next year until November.
For the moment, however, it appears the mayor is focused instead on waging a public-relations campaign to highlight how his administration is spending TIF dollars on projects that benefit taxpayers.
At the same time that Daley pointed to the construction of a new El station, the mayor and CTA officials emphasized that they need billions of dollars just to keep the city’s antiquated mass-transit system from further decay.
CTA President Richard Rodriguez said his agency has identified $3 billion in funding for improvements but needs $10 billion to bring the system into “a state of good repair.” Proposed expansion projects are not included in that sum.
“We’re still $7 billion short,” Rodriguez said.
Still, Daley said it was worthwhile to build another, entirely new station for the El system, adding that the construction of the Morgan Street stop would generate 250 jobs in a time of widespread unemployment.
“A modern public transportation system is essential to the future of not only our city but our country,” Daley said. “You go to Europe, you go to Asia, and public transportation is the No. 1 priority. They get it and we’re still arguing about whether we should have a modern public transportation system, not just here in Chicago but throughout America.”
The Morgan Street station is scheduled to open in 2012, Rodriguez said.
It will serve an area that presents a dramatic clash between the old and new sides of the city. Standing next to the mayor at the podium Wednesday, clutching a cup of Starbucks coffee, was a woman from a civic group in the neighborhood. The area, which some now call the “West Loop Gate,” saw the construction of many loft condos in old industrial buildings during the housing boom.
The rumble of trucks from nearby meat and produce wholesale companies often made it hard to hear Daley. Visible from the podium was a business whose sign promotes “Chicagoland’s finest corned beef and roast beef products.”
Nobody’s telling the Mayor he can’t use TIF money, just that the unused HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of dollars should be returned to the schools and other taxing bodies to be put to use.