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geefloyd46

(1,939 posts)
Sun Aug 12, 2012, 12:45 PM Aug 2012

Chicago School Board Member Benefits From District Budget Cut

School board member Penny Pritzker’s Hyatt Hotels Corp. is benefiting from a $5.2 million [tax increment financing] TIF subsidy on 53rd Street – while [Chicago Public Schools’ (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.

CTSC will hold a press conference and speakout and picket the project at 53rd and Harper on Wednesday, August 8, starting at 5:30 p.m.

“As a member of the Board of Education, it’s Penny Pritzker’s job to find money for our schools, not to take our money for her business,” Orlikoff said.

The $5.2 million subsidy is part of $20.4 million in TIF funds going to the University of Chicago-led redevelopment of Harper Court (see here for some background). In addition to the hotel, the university is building a 12-story office building in the first phase of the project.

CTSC points out that Pritzker has a net worth of $1.8 billion, and the University of Chicago – now engaged in a huge campus expansion – has an endowment of $6.6 billion.

“They have plenty of money,” said Lorraine Chavez of CTSC. “They don’t need a taxpayer subsidy to pay for it. It’s outrageous.”

Fuller story: http://laborspains.blogspot.com/2012/08/chicago-school-board-member-benefits.html

Original Post: http://truth-out.org/news/item/10851-chicago-school-board-member-benefits-from-district-budget-cut

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Chicago School Board Member Benefits From District Budget Cut (Original Post) geefloyd46 Aug 2012 OP
So what are they actually claiming? Igel Aug 2012 #1
I think government has no problem distributing public money to private companies geefloyd46 Aug 2012 #2

Igel

(35,191 posts)
1. So what are they actually claiming?
Sun Aug 12, 2012, 01:16 PM
Aug 2012

That Pritzker as a school board member went and asked for the money given to the board be reduced?

Well, no, that's not claimed.

That if she turned down the money that the hotel company would still build the structure/hotel and the money would go to the schools?

No.

That if she turned down the job that the hotel portion would be cancelled and the schools would get the money?

Well, no.

That she could go and because she's being paid she could talk to the powers that be above her and have the money rerouted to the school because *she* doesn't need it?

Well, again, no.

The money's going to the University of Chicago. It could turn down the money. Pritzker's a contractor.

The city government could reroute the money, but that would probably be a breech of contract. And it's highly likely the money was allocated before bids were taken for the project, so that Pritzker, had she lobbied for it, would have potentially been helping a competitor.

It smells funny. But innuendo and association have never been good logical premises for a conclusion. As McCarthy found out, though, they're great rhetorical devices. Not that I give him credit for innovating them.

geefloyd46

(1,939 posts)
2. I think government has no problem distributing public money to private companies
Sun Aug 12, 2012, 03:01 PM
Aug 2012

The companies usually pay them back with campaign contributions. It's basically a circular system. The gifts they give to private business can't easily be rescinded as those agreements are unbreakable; the ones they enter into with their own citizens, like providing them with a decent education, can be cancelled on a moments notice. And those school kids don't get to sit on the Chicago school board to oversee their transactions. Maybe if they just ran for school board, funneled Rahm Emanuel some cash they would be entitled to an education too.

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