The City Council yesterday approved the use of taxpayer funding to support Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid, Chicago Breaking News reports.
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The ordinance commits the city to use an unspecified amount of tax-increment financing dollars to help build the Olympic Village that would house athletes during the 2016 Summer Games.It also guarantees that the city will cover the cost of services such as additional police patrols and street cleaning, estimated at about $45 million. And it reaffirms a guarantee of $500 million–originally made in 2007–to cover any operating shortfall for the Games.
The story does end with the allowance, “Earlier in the bid process, city and bid team officials had pledged that no taxpayer dollars would be used to fund the Games.” It’s hard not to read the statement as a tiny eulogy to campaign promise we all saw through.
Crain’s yesterday ran this related story, which alleges the creation of a new TIF district in Bronzeville “to help fund new roads, sewers and other infrastructure needed for the Olympic Village planned for the Reese site.”
TIF stands for Tax Increment Financing—but that’s about all anyone can agree it means. Read up on the confusion and misrepresentation in this great piece by Ben Jarovsky here, or read Jarovsky’s dead-on predictions of yesterday’s news here.
Tags: Chicago 2016, Olympics
