With the usual poisonous comments about CPS teachers (pigs, whiners, swine) being posted in response to the CTU's announcement that contract negotiations have stalled, we turn our attention to one of the essential questions: Where did the money go?
Background info:
Where did the money go?
Background info:
- The teachers' pension fund was close to 100% funded in 2000
- Between 1995-2005, CPS collected more than $ 2 billion in tax revenue from CPS teachers, counselors and paraprofessionals (and paid none of that revenue into the pension fund)
- At the request of the School Board, CPS has been twice granted "pension holidays," periods of time during which CPS does not have to put any money into the pension fund
- Pension Holiday #1: 1995-2005
- Pension Holiday #2: 2011-2013
- Currently, Illinois has the worst unfunded pension liability in the U.S., at $85 billion
- Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts were established under Mayor Washington in 1986
- TIF $$ comes from property taxes within each district that are diverted from government units, including public schools, for public and private inve$tment in community improvement projects
- Chicago's TIF program was greatly expanded during Mayor Daley's term
Where did the money go?
- Block 37 Development: Over $50 million; paid from diverted TIF funds; still largely unoccupied
- Block 37 Underground Loop Train Station: $213.3 million; paid from diverted TIF funds; designed to connect Midway to O'Hare but currently non-functional
- Millennium Park: Over $280 million paid from diverted TIF funds
- Central Loop Public Improvement Projects: $365.5 million in TIF funds spent in 2008, with no obligation for Mayor Daley to account for the recipients
Where else did the money go?
Cronies, kick-back artists, charter profiteers, Aramark big wigs, vendors, University of Chicago thought partners, number-crunchers, CPS Talent Office staff, CPS Network chiefs, and David Vitale and Deb Quazzo's banker buddies
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