From yesterday’s Sun Times:

Tax Increment financing should be used to create jobs in “blighted communities”— not to reward downtown developers, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday, vowing to take the “politics out of” former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s favorite economic development tool.

Emanuel has asked former CTA Board Chair and municipal finance expert Carole Brown to lead a panel of experts who will spend the next three months establishing “return-on-investment and performance goals” for every TIF district and project.

Without criticizing Daley directly, Emanuel said he was “shocked” to learn that TIF districts have been multiplying for more than two decades without any job creation standards.

The need for results aside, it’s good to hear a mayor even acknowledge the jobs potential of TIF.

[H/T M.M.]

Community leaders voiced support yesterday for a re-evaluation of how TIF funds are allocated in Chicago.

Gathered in front of the Chicago Board of Trade, 141 W. Jackson, they stressed the need for tax-increment financing money in neighborhoods and questioned the reasoning behind TIF funds for successful multi-million dollar corporations. The Mercantile Exchange received $15 million in TIF subsides for renovations to the Chicago Board of Trade building, including its restrooms, despite making $457 million in profits in the first three months of 2011 along [sic], organizers said.

[H/T Kay Shelton]