Will Alderman Allen become a TIF reformer?

Hard to believe, but the Mayor's abusive and dishonest use the Tax Increment Finance (TIF) program and mismanagement of privatization and the city budget have led even usually compliant Aldermen to make some peeps of protest.

Alderman Tom Allen of the Northwest side has proposed renaming TIFs the "Over Tax Fund".

Given the refusal of most Aldermen to challenge the Mayor's dishonest portrayal of the billion dollars sitting in TIFs as magic money generated without tax increases, or the repeated abuse of a program intended to relieve blight and reduce poverty into a slush fund for politically connected developers and private institutions, even this mild questioning of the emperor's clothes is encouraging.

Is the anger from residents finally lighting a fire under elected officials?

Even relatively risk-averse groups like IVI-IPO have called for a moratorium on any new TIFs. Mike Quigley won his seat in Congress partly due to community support he won by questioning TIFs.