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School board member Penny Pritzker’s Hyatt Hotels Corp. is benefiting from a $5.2 million TIF subsidy on 53rd Street – while CPS’s proposed 2013 budget cuts seven schools surrounding the hotel project by $3.4 million, which is roughly the portion CPS is losing from the TIF deal.
This one example shows the fundamental corruption in the way things are done here,” said David Orlikoff of the Chicago Teachers Solidarity Campaign, a labor and community coalition growing out of Occupy Chicago’s labor committee and supporting the Chicago Teachers Union.
Penny Sue Pritzker (born 1959) is an American business executive, and a member of the Pritzker family of Chicago, one of America's wealthiest business families. She is the founder and current Chair of Classic Residence by Hyatt, or Vi, a chain of luxury senior living communities spread throughout the United States, and the national finance chair of Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
Those gathered at East 53rd Street and South Lake Park Avenue on Thursday held signs saying "TIFs are for Kids."
"The mayor [gave] Penny Pritzker $5 million in TIF money to build this hotel," said teacher Daryl Reed. "They're saying that they don't have money but they're giving billionaires five million dollars to build a hotel.
Furthermore, little or nothing about this story has been reported in the national television networks. Obviously, this would be huge embarrassment to the Obama re-election campaign and fundraising effort, so it is not surprising that it has been ignored.[OP]
Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is a special funding tool used by the City of Chicago to promote public and private investment across the city. Funds are used to build and repair roads and infrastructure, clean polluted land and put vacant properties back to productive use, usually in conjunction with private development projects. Funds are generated by growth in the Equalized Assessed Valuation (EAV) of properties within a designated district over a 23-year period.
Originally posted by skepticconwatcher
Furthermore, little or nothing about this story has been reported in the national television networks. Obviously, this would be huge embarrassment to the Obama re-election campaign and fundraising effort, so it is not surprising that it has been ignored.[OP]
It's not a story. That's why.