A proposal from Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration to use property tax revenue generated downtown to fund the $3.6 billion extension of the CTA’s Red Line from 95th Street to the city’s southern border near 130th Street faces an uncertain future amid opposition from Chicago City Council members.
The proposal from Lightfoot’s administration would create a new tax-increment financing district along the southern branch of the CTA Red Line to generate $950 million for the project by funneling a portion of the increase in property tax revenues for the next 25 years from the 42nd, 3rd, 4th, 11th and 25th wards — even though the extension of the train line would be miles away from any of those wards.
Ald. Anthony Beale, a frequent critic of Lightfoot whose Far South Side ward would directly benefit from the Red Line extension, called the mayor’s plan “short sighted.” “Sometimes I do understand the city has to put some skin in the game,” Beale said. “But this is more than some skin. This is an arm and leg.”
Ald. Beale should’ve taken that decade to learn about local match requirements.
Sets up a great precedent, tbf