The hearings for the proposed Star Line TIF are now over and the Village of Schaumburg has two totally different budgets of $119,500,000.    Here is the original Star Line/ T.O.D. Budget published on January 15, 2009 on how $119,500,000 of taxpayer money will be spent.

Here is the revised Star Line/ T.O.D. Budget that miraculously appeared two months late on the day of the only public hearing on March 24, 2009.   If it were not for a Freedom of Information Act request, the Village would still be hiding the $95,000,000 corporate subsidy you see below.

The first budget is extremely vague.  It is impossible to identify where the TIF taxes will be spent.   The STAR Line TIF study went to great lengths to document trivial blighting factors.  But when it came to explaining what actions and costs would be taken to correct the so-called blighting factors, there is no itemized list of projects and one page of vague cost categories .   The TIF Act requires itemization, not summarization of costs.   This was more like a blank check than a budget.

I filed a Freedom of Information Act request on March 19, 2009 to try to get some itemization detail on the original $119,500,000 Star Line TIF budget.   I was told the Village had no such documents! Then on March 24, the day of the public hearing,  I received a new budget from a Village Attorney.   She explained that the consultant was the only one that had it and that no one at the Village had the document on March 19, when I requested it.   Yet the date on the new budget was December 2008! If a $120,000,000 budget with four office buildings, two hotels, two restaurants, 400 condos, and a ramp existed in December, 2008, then the Village had to know about it.   They chose to conceal the budget from the public and the Joint Review Board.   Both Star Line TIF budgets lack credibility and substance,  as does the Schaumburg Community Development department.

You do not completely revise a $120,000,000 budget two months after it is presented to the public without explaining what the changes are.   Every category in the original budget is gone.   At the public hearing,  the Village had no coherent explanation for the radical budget change,  why it was two months late,  and why the details of a $120,000,000 budget were concealed from the public.

Here is one example of the numbers not adding up.  There was $73,500,000 in the original budget for roads and public infrastructure.  In the revised budget, there was no infrastructure bucket at all and only the $25,000,000 ramp was included.   Where did the other $48,500,000 in infrastructure disappear to?

Both Star Line TIF Plan budgets have legal problems.   The main one is that TIF Act specifically requires redevelopment costs to be itemized.   The point of itemization is to make sure the money goes to projects that will actually fix the blighting factors that justified the TIF.   What we need are costs for each building, roads, parking, and other infrastructure so they can be review to see if they actually address the problems the TIF is supposed to fix.    Secondly, how can the review process be legal and fair, if the public and Joint Review Board did not have a legal and accurate budget to review?

Now that we have some budget specifics, we  can see the Star Line TIF is mostly about corporate subsidies to developers, not alleviating blighting factors.   Building these offices, condos, restaurants, and hotels  is a $120,000,000 solution for a few trivial problems that do not need fixing.  The real problem is the TIF itself.   It will cause $120,000,000 worth of  economic damage to taxpayers, schools, and legitimate neighboring business.

Of the five blighting factors the Plan is supposed to address, this budget will (1) worsen vacancies by increasing supply,  (2) worsen land coverage by adding  new buildings,  (3) increase deleterious use by increasing traffic congestion and weaken the non-subsidized neighboring economy,  (4) may or may not be better planning but at high cost, and (5) would increase EAV but only at the expense of a massive taxpayer subsidy.

The TIF Act requires a comprehensive plan for all 23 years worth of estimated expenses at the beginning of the project because that is when the reviews are.   Schaumburg seems to act as if it can just add to the TIF plan whenever it feels like it and without regard to matching the spending to fixing the blighting factors.    The TIF Act does allow room for  adjustments to costs, but all it takes is to pass a vote in the city council to do it without any referendums or hearings.

The revised budget indicates that the only truly public benefit is a $25,000,000 off ramp. The other $94,500,000 is used up for subsidies to private developers.   This second budget reveals that the $120,000,000 was really just a down payment.   It does not include any roads and parking for the new train station and no money to really address all the “blighting factors” that the TIF is supposed to alleviate.   The cost of Arbor Drive that was mentioned in the public hearing is not included.   All of those expenses will have to be on top of the $120,000,000 at some later date.  The other TIF in Schaumburg is 681% higher than the original estimate, so this TIF can and will grow much larger if it is passed.    The Village board is due to consider the TIF plan at the  April 14th Board meeting.

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