hoping the “project enhance the city’s reputation as a tourist destination (Higginbotham 2000).” “The benefit to the city is the jobs (Higginbotham 2000).” The city will have to consume the property tax but will receive revenue from the increased wage tax. The city of Chicago plans to use $35 million from its upcoming $150 million tax increment financing bond sale to help cover the costs of the proposed Millenium Park. “The TIF has proved lucrative for the city, allowing it to acquire Loop sites, promote new theater construction, finance a facelift for the State Street shopping area, and provide subsidies to developers (Shields 2000).” With all of these positives it is hard to believe that negative aspects could be found.Negative AspectsWith good there is bad. TIFs generate enormous amounts of money, but for whom? Themselves. Schools can not benefit from this revenue since they are not included in the TIF. Another objection is that new development projects require basic services such as utility lines, along with police and fire stations. The problem with these improvements is that the TIF does not cover the improvement costs, instead public taxpayers have to cover them. A concern is that “the expanded tax base that is created by redevelopment may fail to generate enough property tax revenues to cover the cost of increased basic service needs, such as police and fire protection (DeSue 1999).” Greenfield investments rather than redevelopment of Brownfield sites are also pushed. When developing these new sites, subsidies and bonds are constantly being offered by the city to prospective companies. Occasionally subsidies are offered to existing companies in order to keep them in the TIF. This is the case in Battle Creek, Michigan where the Kellogg Company is threatening to close down their biggest plant in the city. The plant is located at the center of the TIF and is c...
