Ten years ago, Chicago’s most powerful alderman, Edward M. Burke, and the rest of the City Council signed off on a deal that promised $16 million in taxpayer subsidies to the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. to help it build a new corporate campus on Goose Island rather than move to the suburbs.

Three years later, Burke’s law firm, retained by Wrigley, persuaded Cook County officials to lower the property assessments for two buildings the chewing gum giant had bought down the street from the new campus.

Burke’s legal work helped Wrigley cut its property taxes by more than $412,000 between 2006 and 2008, records show.

For that, the company says, it paid the alderman about $90,000 in legal fees.

via Chicago Sun-Times.

What the story fails to mention is that Wrigley also received millions in TIF money to build the hitherto unfinished building on Goose Island.

The story is a good read (i.e. good read it) as it also talks about how Wrigley has been sold to Mars.  So now all the millions spent on top of the millions in lost revenue will likely never be recouped.

Just embarrassing all around…. unless you’re The Machine.