Creating a tax increment financing district around the Lathrop Homes redevelopment will ensure that 100 percent of property-tax revenue generated on the site will go to a city-run slush fund.

In an effort to shore up pension debt, Chicago officials in 2014 adopted a pension-reform package that included raising the telephone tax. Though the Illinois Supreme Court struck down these changes, the tax hike remains.

Even with the city’s record tax hike and massive borrowing, lack of reform means Chicagoans can expect to open up their wallets yet again.

While the mayor is right to say that expanding the downtown development area is a “win-win” for developers and poor communities, expanding downtown without the mayor’s proposed new tax on developers and inflexible size restrictions would be a bigger win for both.