Readers should know by now that I am opposed to Tax Increment Financing districts.

The reason is that they siphon off property taxes from schools, parks, counties, etc., for the benefit of developers.

They also can be slush funds for city fathers and mothers.

The Tribune reported this week that 36% of the real estate taxes that Chicago will get this year is from TIF districts.

One-four of the city’s area is in a TIF district.

That makes Woodstock Mayor Sager and his City Council look positively conservative with its TIF district only covering 5% of Woodstock.

In any event, the Tribune article reminds me of a logical use of the TIF option.

It’s a TIF district that extends a mile in each direction from a rapid transit line.

In one exceptional case, some of the money will automatically go to CPS and the other taxing bodies.

That’s in the massive transit TIF that is a mile wide and five miles long along the CTA Red Line.

In that case, CPS automatically gets back its regular share of the growing tax base, and the city gets some of the increased revenue too.

The rest is being used to revamp the busy “L” line.

Not being a creature of Chicago, I have no idea where the CTA Red Line is but I do know that proximity to mass transit raises the value of real estate.

For that reason, it seems logical to me that for part of the increased taxes from the increase in value of the nearby property be used to pay for the infrastructure that caused the increase in value.