To: Rahm Emanuel, Mayor of the city of Chicago
No Public Money For DePaul Arena or Marriott's Hotel
Mayor Emanuel wants to give $55 million public dollars to subsidize the building of the Marriott's Hotel that is to be attached to the new arena that will host DePaul teams. He also has approved public financing of $164 million for the arena. Say "No!" to this outrageous looting of public dollars for private interests.
Why is this important?
The mayor closed 49 public schools. The mayor closed 6 public health clinics. The mayor has curtailed CTA services. Park District fees have shot up. The mayor pushed through the City Council a $500 million+ hike in property taxes and fees. The mayor is sitting on $1.4 BILLION in property taxes in the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) accounts.
Say "No!" to the latest give-away to Loop/South Loop based large insider fueled construction projects that shower literally hundreds of millions of public dollars on private interests.
Costs are already soaring for the arena and hotel project attached to the Chicago Convention Center. See http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20141118/BLOGS04/141119802/cost-soaring-for-proposed-depaul-arena. The mayor has approved $55 million in TIF (property tax funds) for the hotel construction and the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (a public body) will provide $164 million funding for the arena. WHY re these projects needed? Could it be for the much desired CASINO the mayor has repeatedly said he wants for the convention center?
In any case - if DePaul wants a new stadium and Marriott's wants a new hotel - let them buy land on the open market and use THEIR OWN MONEY to build what ever they want.
We are not broke.
Say "NO!" to this terrible use of public dollars. We need #MorePublic!, not less.