With talks for a new teachers contract still short of the finish line, the Chicago Teachers Union and allies shifted their attention to the streets and particularly the Lincoln Yards Tax Increment Financing District—drawing some strong blowback from Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd.

And meanwhile, the CTU scheduled a meeting of its House of Delegates for this evening, at which delegates could vote on the latest offer from Chicago Public Schools or merely get an update and hold firm.

The TIF war, which has been building, came when students and some teachers marched to the Lincoln Yards site along the North Branch of the Chicago River and briefly blocked the offices of developer Sterling Bay with a sit in.

The union contends that the $1.3 billion in TIF subsidies approved for the $6 billion Lincoln Yards project should instead be used to pay for school needs. But Mayor Lori Lightfoot, while saying the city does need TIF reforms, says that what the union wants is “impossible," and she got some strong support from Hopkins, whose ward covers the TIF district.

"As an alderman who supports the call for a full-time nurse in every school, more social workers specifically trained to address issues of childhood trauma, and lower class sizes, I am deeply disappointed that the leadership of CTU believes it is necessary to engage in intentional deception and false narratives as a means to advocate for such worthy and justifiable expenditures of public tax dollars,” Hopkins said in a statement.

“During the budget hearing of October 28, 2019, I pointedly asked the (city) budget director and CFO how much public funding from ANY source is allocated to Lincoln Yards in the 2020 budget. The answer was zero,” he added. “In light of this fact, to suggest that Lincoln Yards is somehow an impediment to meeting CTU’s current demands for more tax dollars is completely false.”

Hopkins’ comment was a reference to the fact that all of the promised subsidies will come from property taxes paid by Sterling Bay in decades to come. There is no money now to shift to the schools because the TIF just was formed and no development has yet happened that can be taxed.

Asked for a response, CTU spokeswoman Chris Geovanis replied, “This is a dispute about priorities—and it is simply wrong to continue to prioritize handouts of precious public resources to rich developers over the needs of low-income public schoolchildren.”

Lightfoot has agreed to shift $160 million to schools by declaring a surplus on existing TIF districts. The union charges that she’s “clawed back” $100 million of that by charging Chicago Public Schools for police services and pensions. The city says the police charges have been in every city budget for many years, and that schools regularly paid for pensions for non-teachers covered by a city pension fund until 2012, when CPS was in much worse financial shape.

In other developments, Lightfoot, in her own press conference, again accused the union of “moving the goal posts” with last minute contract demands. The city already has agreed to $500 million new spending on teacher pay and items such as hiring more school nurses and librarians, but now the union wants other things such as a promise that its version of an elected school board will pass in Springfield.

CTU did not have an immediate response to that, but presumably will have more to say after its 6 p.m. meeting.