By: Diane Benjamin
On 4/12/2016, the City of Atlanta took out a loan at the Atlanta National Bank for $495,000 to buy FIFTEEN ACRES – $33,000 an acre for undeveloped land with no water, sewer, roads or infrastructure.
See the loan document here – PDF page 15 HERE
That link is what the City of Atlanta filed with the Illinois Comptroller’s office for 2016. The report was signed by Thomas Jacob on 10/21/2016 which means the 2017 report should be available soon.
If the City of Atlanta borrowed $495,000, as stated on the included bank loan documents, why does page 8 of the TIF report show $656,238?
The column is labeled ORIGINAL ISSUANCE, that means interest should not be included since the bank hasn’t earned it yet and the TIF isn’t liable for it. Since the first 3 years show variable interest payments, the total isn’t possible to calculate!
That means: Somebody needs to explain where $161,238 is!
How did a $495,000 loan become $656,238?
Here’s more to ask about:
Were the citizens told they would be investing $30,728,106 + Capital Costs of $40,990,620 + Bureaucracy or $340,667?
Maybe they think GRANTS will cover the cost. Of course grants come from taxpayers, unless the government just adds the cost to what future generations will be paying back.
Page 14 recaps what this TIF has already cost. Look at the right column – who is making money for:
- Business District Re-development
- Professional
- Marketing and Planning
- Administrative and Professional
Did it really cost the Atlanta Betterment Fund $4000 to move the carriage house? Has anybody seen the bill? Why didn’t they pay the cost instead of the TIF paying it?
Has anybody EVER seen the tax returns filed by the Atlanta Betterment Fund?
The City of Atlanta has been paying for the Atlanta Betterment Fund to send out fundraising materials, it appears the Atlanta Betterment Fund hasn’t explained how much money they have raised or what it is spent on. They need to before the City of Atlanta gives them another dime.
I’d be happy to print the tax returns if any have been filed.
Some how I’m not surprised! You can go out on the City of Atlanta web page and it will tell you who is on Economic Development for the City of Atlanta. But let’s start naming names! Does Bill Thomas’ name ring a bell? Fred Finchum? Dale Colaw? The beloved Billie Cheek? And let’s not forget Susan Hoblit! You can All thank them along with your alderman for putting this community in exhorbatent debt for a community of only 1,600. And we still have no jobs and the plans they have for the 15 acres will not create jobs but it will create the need for you to pay even more taxes!
Economic development by the government is a sham. It becomes a carnival shell game that no one can win. Betterment fund?? Betterment for who??
Illinois has got to be the crooked state ever!
Nothing but crooks in government EVERY WHERE!
“The State’s criminality is nothing new and nothing to be wondered at. It began when the first predatory group of men clustered together and formed the State, and it will continue as long as the State exists in the world, because the State is fundamentally an anti-social institution, fundamentally criminal. The idea that the State originated to serve any kind of social purpose is completely unhistorical. It originated in conquest and confiscation—that is to say, in crime. It originated for the purpose of maintaining the division of society into an owning-and-exploiting class and a propertyless (sic) dependent class — that is, for a criminal purpose.
No State known to history originated in any other manner, or for any other purpose. Like all predatory or parasitic institutions, its first instinct is that of self-preservation. All its enterprises are directed first towards preserving its own life, and, second, towards increasing its own power and enlarging the scope of its own activity. For the sake of this it will, and regularly does, commit any crime which circumstances make expedient.”
The wisdom of an Anarch more eloquent than I, Albert Jay Nock.
So, who would build the roads? Would we all be responsible for the construction of the road that passes our own home? If so, I could use brick, the neighbor might use concrete, then his neighbor gravel, then back to brick or maybe just leave the dirt/mud……just curious about your view on that.
Holy Crap! For a population that small? Who has gotten rich here? I hope prison is involved!
Government involved in “Economic development” isn’t that Socialist or such?
I need a GOOD political science professor to EXPLAIN how this makes my life better!
It sends your money to the Economic Development folks so they have jobs!
I would like to know if this information is really true and has been documented and the city of Atlanta did actually borrow that much money. I was on the city council at that time and was the only no vote. However, there was never a mention of borrowing or voting on more that the $495,000. So please provide me with the legal document/documents proving this is fact and I will pull in the FBI to have this investigated immediately. Thank you
They also borrowed $150,000 for Caseys