Yesterday, the Chicago News Cooperative reported that the Illinois state fund that's paying off the construction of the White Sox' U.S. Cellular Field and the reconstruction of the Bears' Soldier Field is running short of funds, and will need to be bailed out by city taxpayers. With the hotel tax revenues designated for stadium expenses coming in below projections, the state has withheld $1.1 million in income tax money that would normally go to the city of Chicago.
Today, the News Coop (or as I prefer to think of it after misreading its URL for the umpteenth time, the New Scoop) says that thanks to an "accounting error," the hit to city taxpayers this year was actually only $185,000. That's the good news. The bad is that even if hotel tax revenues rebound, the state sports authority's annual debt payments are scheduled to rise from $30 million to $88.5 million over the next two decades, leading authority board member Jim Reynolds to warn that "the city has to begin to plan for some significant outlays."
rest at http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2011/12/4743_chicago_taxpaye.html
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