The Civic Federation is shining a bright and unflattering light on Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plan to declare a record $1 billion tax increment-financing surplus to rescue the city and Chicago Public Schools, stave off classroom cuts and help bankroll a new teachers contract.

In a report issued Monday, Chicago’s preeminent taxpayer watchdog group said the “complex and highly politicized” surplus process revised by the Johnson administration last year has allowed the creation of TIF districts to “act as a sort of stealth property tax” that bankrolls operating costs at the expense of economically challenged areas TIF districts were created to revitalize.

Although “increasingly large TIF sweeps” have bailed out the city and CPS budgets in recent years, the special taxing districts were “not de

See Full Page