DevCorp North is planning to raise property taxes in east Rogers Park by creating two new "special service areas" (SSAs). Tommy FitzGibbon, an active member of the Board of Directors of DevCorp North, made the announcement at a community meeting at Boone School on Thursday, June 22. "We have two SSAs in east Rogers Park, and we are planning two more," FitzGibbon told neighbors.
An SSA is a special property tax district earmarked to fund so-called "community development corporations." Since first implemented on State Street, the Daley administration's Department of Planning and Development has been agressively using SSAs to migrate "community development corporations" and "chambers of commerce" from a membership-funded model to a publicly subsidized property-tax funded model.
The two new SSAs planned for east Rogers Park will bring to 4 the total number of special property tax districts in east Rogers Park established to fund the operation of DevCorp North. The two planned SSAs would join the Howard-Paulina SSA (#19) and the Morse-Clark-Glenwood SSA (#24) in funding DevCorp North.
DevCorp North's ambitious expansion plan for their taxation districts will put DevCorp North firmly in the lead City-wide in terms of the number of special property tax districts they control. DevCorp North and the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce are currently tied for first place in the Chicago property tax subsidy derby at 2 SSAs apiece. DevCorp North narrowly avoided being bumped into 2nd place this spring when the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce was rebuffed by area businesses in their attempt to establish a third SSA for themselves (on Clybourn Ave!), which would have put them in sole control of the lead.
The announcement comes amid increasing concerns from the community regarding accountability for the property taxes collected and the effectiveness of DevCorp North, and shortly after a recent study of SSAs which documented the failure of SSAs in Chicago in promoting retail.
Under terms of a secret endowment plan negotiated by Alderman Joe Moore, DevCorp North owns a 5% share of the limited liability company (Combined-Development Howard LLC) that owns the publicly subsidized Gateway Mall.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
Where’s The List of Great Accomplishments for Howard Street?
More tax dollars funneled in the wrong direction.
where are the two new taxes planned for did they say? And what was the original purpose of the community meeting that Fitzgibbons mentioned this?
He didn't say
TIF propoganda
Was there any mention of new SSAs at My Place For?
What was the community meeting for? I couldn't make that meeting - did anyone go?
Not only was there no mention of additonal SSA's at the meeting at Gateway, there was no mention of plans to EXPAND the existing Howard SSA! Unless you analyzed the maps they handed out, oy would never have known.
The point of the meeting was to propogandize for TIFs. You didn't miss anything except a man who makes a living financing TIF deals telling TIF lies and an off-hand remark about 2 new SSAs.
I wonder...did he use the term SSA when he really meant TIF? A neighbor heard discussion of TIF's from Evanston down Sheridan Road to meet up with Loyola/Sheridan at a brown bag lunch earlier this spring. Allegedly, it was to make up for lost revenues when the harbor idea was nixed - in the first attempt that is.
He mainly talked about TIFs, but the quote re: 2 new SSAs is accurate and was in the context of a brief aside on SSAs.
I received an email from a board member
a) stating incorrectly that I posted this
b) it's blatantly not true
c) demanding that I 'do the right' thing and delete this post.
I haven't received a response to my reply about pushing taxes through without total public knowledge and/or approval, receiving minutes of the board meetings, and budget info, rearranging their exclusionary hours to include the taxpayers, etc, but I did extend my thanks for removing the lavender advertisement for one board member.
Do they not understand how they appear? This is so much like Small Town USA with the holier than thous on one side of the tracks and the 'less than's' on the other. This is about as progressively liberal as concrete.
Post a Comment