In “City & School District TIF Surplus Budget Surplus Budget Estimates”, I put up a chart showing a City of DeKalb TIF 1 surplus for FY2011 (to be budgeted for FY2012) of $221,000. While this part is correct, I somehow at the time failed to understand that this was only the amount of the surplus that was going to be distributed by the County Collector; in other words, the property tax portion. DeKalb also expects (at least, as of October 2010) to give itself $569,500 in sales tax surplus for the year as well.

In other words, a budget estimate of $750,000 in TIF 1 surplus is perfectly legitimate. I am sorry for both the error and the conclusions drawn from it.

The discovery of my mistake came out of requesting of the City of DeKalb the original September 2010 surplus letter (as opposed to the October 2010 letter previously received from District 428) and marinating on it awhile. I will put up that document at some point, hopefully today, but did want to get the word out ASAP for those following budget matters at CB.