Obama's Chicago redistributing wealth

[ugonow]

"The landmark Blackstone Hotel in downtown Chicago, which has hosted 12 U.S. presidents, opened in 2008 after a two-year, $116 million renovation. Inside the Beaux Arts structure, built in 1910, buffed marble staircases greet guests spending up to $699 a night for rooms with views of Lake Michigan.

What’s surprising isn’t the opulent makeover: It’s how the project was financed. The work was subsidized by a federal development program intended to help poor communities.

The biggest beneficiary of taxpayer help for the Blackstone revamp was Prudential Financial Inc., the second-largest U.S. life insurer. The company got $15.6 million in tax credits from the U.S. Department of the Treasury for helping to fund the project, according to Chicago city records, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its March issue.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second-largest U.S. bank by assets, also took in money by serving as a lender and the monitor of Blackstone construction financing, city records show.

Since 2003, some of the world’s biggest financial companies, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., U.S. Bancorp, JPMorgan Chase and Prudential, have taken advantage of a federal subsidy that will cost taxpayers $10.1 billion -- and most of the public has never heard of it.

Investors have used the program, called New Markets Tax Credits, to help build more than 300 upscale projects, including hotels, condominiums, office buildings and a car museum, on streets far from poverty, according to Treasury Department records released through a federal Freedom of Information Act request.

Against Intent

Money spent on high-end development could have been used to build more than 1,000 job-training centers, medical clinics and schools. The program, endorsed by Republican Senator Rick Santorum and House Speaker Dennis Hastert and adopted by Congress, was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 2000. "

www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-08/rich-taking-from-poor-as-10-billion-u-s-subsidy-law-funds-luxury-hotels.html

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

I am thinking of the 1000s of skilled laborer jobs the have been created during the renovations, and the new jobs created by this federal funding. Let's toss in the revenue generated by possibly meetings and conventions held at the hotel the taxes produced.

Newark, NJ, has gone through a Renaissance the last 14 years, by redevloping the water front from Newark Penn station all the way up Rt 21(McCarter Highway). A world class performing arts center, restaurants, parking garages, Ferry Street, a minor league ball park, hotel, a surface light rail, several strip shopping areas, and the Prudential Center(home of the Devils, concerts, etc), have revitalized Newark.

Over that last decade and one half, 1000s of construction jobs were created.

[ugonow]

I am thinking campaign contributions.

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

I am thinking campaign contributions.

Well, it is Chicago. And note that the construction industry is heavily unionized(ie: campaign contributions and a voting block).

Would you rather have major cities fall further into decay?
The revitalization of Newark has been a boon to the area. I live nearby.

[workpublic]

he's owned by the bankers, just like all of the recent potus. no surprise there.

[ugonow]

And what do bankers want with a communist?

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

And what do bankers want with a communist?

Spending bills originate in congress. Not sure what the point is. The fed govt supplies seed funding for all sorts of infrastructure and revitalization projects in urban areas. This is not some new revaluation.

[Angel!]

Against Intent

It is silly to argue something is against the intent of a program or legislation. If they didn't intend for the program to be used this way, then they should have been more specific in putting together the rules & guidelines for qualification.