Emanuel Defends TIFs, Promises They'll Be More Transparent

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday centered his attention on creating jobs and developing sound economics in the neighborhoods.

He did it while trying to rehabilitate the image of a mysterious, much-maligned program that gobbles up half a billion tax dollars every year.

The mayor feels the program and all those tax dollars are critical to the city's future, CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports.

Under a tax-increment finance, or TIF, district, the city earmarks growth in property taxes and reserves it for improvements at the site. TIFs are controversial because the other local governments, such as school districts, do not get a share of the new tax growth.

Take the old Cooper Lamp factory at Diversey and Rockwell, now being redeveloped as the Green Exchange.

Emanuel came to the building, which already has nearly $3 million in tax dollars earmarked for improvements -- tax dollars that go not to the city, but back to the developer to help offset his costs. This, Emanuel said, is what the TIF program is all about.

"It's been attacked for being a political tool without the economic or job benefit as part of it," the mayor said.

He promised to make the program more transparent. Every dollar earmarked and spent for every TIF in the city is now online.

And the Mayor introduced a new panel, led by former CTA chairman Carole Brown to develop guidelines that projects must meet before getting those TIF tax dollars.

The Mayor considered the Green Exchange a model TIF project. The developer is proposing to renovate the old lamp factory, across the street from well-kept homes, into a complex for environmentally friendly companies.

David Baum, co-developer of the Green Exchange, predicts more than 1,000 jobs will be created at the Green Exchange.

A new study indicates land valued at $21 billion dollars -- nearly a third of all property in the city -- has taxes frozen at pre-improvement levels. The question the new mayor will undoubtedly ask when he sees those figures is how much bang are we getting for those mega-bucks?

Contributing: CBS 2 Political Producer Ed Marshall