Chicago taxpayers "may not be on the hook for more than $1 million for renovations at Soldier Field and U.S. Cellular Field," according to Mack & Hopkins of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority Thursday said that the "shortfall in hotel tax revenue it used to make debt payments was $185,000 -- not the $1.1 million that a recent audit found -- and so the impact on the city will be significantly less." But the audit findings "still provoked Mayor Rahm Emanuel to say taxpayers shouldn't be treated like 'an ATM machine.'" Emanuel said that Chicago taxpayers "should not be treated like cash machines to help cover renovations at the two sports facilities." He said that he "wants a healthy Chicago sports industry to add [to] the city’s quality of life, but it should not come at taxpayer expense." Emanuel: "I don't want the taxpayers of the city of Chicago to be treated as if they're just an ATM machine; they're not." Emanuel "recently replaced three members of the authority's board with veterans of the financial services industry and said he 'gave them clear instructions' about what role he wanted them to play." He said, "You're not there for yourself, you're not there socially, you're there as the voice of the taxpayers of the city of Chicago." Hotel tax revenue is the "main source the authority uses to pay its annual debt payments for bonds related to work on the baseball stadium and Soldier Field." The state "provides an advance at the beginning of the year, which is repaid with hotel tax revenue." This past year, however, hotel tax revenue "wasn't enough, so the state turned to a fund that is Chicago's portion of state income tax." This money "goes beyond the annual $5 million subsidy the city provides" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 12/2).
