[Randomguy34]

Since no one else mentioned today how $55 million of TIF money went from McCormick Place to Navy Pier...

How city power players diverted millions in blight-fighting TIF cash to Navy Pier

Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration signed off on an elaborate financial shell game that obscured payment of $55 million for renovations at Navy Pier with tax dollars reserved to fight urban blight, records show. The bookkeeping jiujitsu appears to violate the spirit, if not the letter, of the controversial tax-increment financing program, which critics say has been widely abused and not used for its intended purpose of spurring development in or near economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

A joint investigation by the Better Government Association and Crain's Chicago Business finds that the administration began filtering the money in 2014 through a hotel project at McCormick Place, capitalizing on its Near South Side location as a rationale for tapping funds reserved for struggling communities.

Emails and internal documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show that officials at the city as well as the governing body of the lakefront convention complex knew the planned 1,205-room Marriott didn't need the financing. But they also knew that Navy Pier, 3 miles away and a vast distance from any urban blight, did.

Those officials, the records show, created a paper trail for the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority—the agency commonly known as McPier that runs the convention center and owns Navy Pier—to obtain the money, ostensibly for the hotel construction. It was paid out in installments from tax-increment financing accounts filled with revenue cleaved from property tax collections. Shortly after each TIF payment, MPEA shifted the same amount of money to Navy Pier Inc., a private nonprofit set up by the authority in 2011 to operate the popular lakefront tourist destination.
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http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...s-to-navy-pier