Some of the Members of the CMME are the Greater Roseland Chamber of Commerce (nowhere near the South Chicago Branch), the South Chicago Chamber of Commerce (on the SCB), Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference, Alliance of the Southeast, etc.

So you're saying that all these people (not dummies) don't know or understand what their own communities need? The reasons for that lack of understanding?

And these folks have everything to do with the Metra Electric.

CTA Red Line In The Median Of The Dan Ryan Expressway.
 

Enjoy the pictures.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s...f/P1140302.jpg[/URL][/IMG]

CTA Red Line showing a southbound at 59th St. shown from a passing Green Line train.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s...f/P1130272.jpg

CTA Red Line action in-between 69th St. and 63rd St. stations next to the Chicago Skyway.

Transit TIFs
 

Union Station Transit Center
 

July 6, 2016

Design team chosen for phase one of Union Station project
 

From today's Sun-Times

Full story available at link.

Cool, but waiting for Federal money is like waiting for the Ice Age. My grandkids will be 90 when this happens

^ Who said anything about Federal? As of last week, the city has a new TIF tool that can raise large sums of money specifically for transit projects including Union Station. It's a 1/2-mile radius around the station, which includes mo$t of downtown.

It's interesting that in the article, Emanuel seems to downplay this. I wonder what his rationale for that could be?

But those TIF funds still need matching Federal funds. Which means study after study after design consultant after design consultant. Like I always complain about, despite huge demands for labor we've become a nation of managers and desk workers, so we've gotta fill those coffers first.

Emanuel is probably downplaying this, IMO, because of the whole "Mayor 1%" business. It would look better politically to talk about extending the red line south

Yeah, I thought the assumption is that this is a nice way of earning the local dollars to use as a match for federal without having to deal with the city or especially the state to come through.

It's gonna be a long time before the TIF does anything. Its income is derived from changes in assessment. If they were enacted today, they would not see a dime until the next triennial. And probably a decade until there's enough dough to do anything. Then, we can can use it as matching funds with the further delays that are involved with that. Not that I think TIFs good idea.

As to the red line extension, political motives aside, its advantage is that it can be done with bupkis in land costs.

The thing about infrastructure is that if you wait for the demand to be there before you invest, you are already too late. You'll get more bang for the buck if you invest in transit where demand is low and costs are low. Then you lever that investment to create demand.

The city doesn't have to actually collect the money before funding projects. They can take out a loan based on the future revenue from the TIF. At least that is my understanding.

With our credit rating?

No thanks.

Could they not utilize a Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing loan, through the Federal Railroad Administration, which currently has $35 Billion available?

This page helps to explain the loans and process involved.

Wouldn't the quality of the collateral mean interest rates backed by TIF revenues would be lower than the rate the city would generally have to pay? These don't assume the city can pay the loan back, but rather that property owners will pay their taxes.

(I could be totally off here, I'm not an expert on this by any stretch)

^ Aren't property taxes one of the foundations of the city's budget anyhow?

Of course, but don't TIFs effectively shave off a piece property taxes and mandate that the city can't use it for anything other than infrastructure improvements within that district? So that revenue can't simply be used to cover other debts, which makes it a lot safer to a lender.

Kind of, but at least in CPS instance, it has it's own taxing authority, so it just raises to a level of its needs regardless of the existence of TIF. TIF is essentially an extra tax.

It is not an extra tax it basically borrowing against all future increases in tax revenue. Ideally from the increase in property values within the tif district due to redevelopment.

Borrowing would necessitate paying back.

TIFs divert current revenue from new sources away from the general fund, schools and parks and into a discretionary fund.

Although, the schools are supposed to get theirs under the Transit TIF.

I'm not sure RRIF loans could be used for the CTA network, it's really meant for mainline railroads. Union Station would certainly qualify though.

I don't know if it's kosher to use a Federal loan, backed by local property tax revenue, as the local match for a Federal grant. That seems like two bites at the apple. That being said, if there is a way to bend the rules, this is the ideal time to do it with a Chicagoan in the White House, Emanuel on the fifth floor and a former Emanuel staffer heading up FRA.

Federal matching is nice and all, but A) you're competing with cities around the country for a fixed pot of money, which is itself vulnerable to the mood of Congress, and B) the endless layers of Federal red tape you have to wade through add years to the project schedule, and in the world of construction cost inflation, years of delay could mean hundreds of millions of dollars. Construction costs often don't scale with inflation, so the longer you wait, the less buying power you get from your tax receipts.