While Chicago politicians debate th...

While Chicago politicians debate the big-box ordinance, suburban officials say they are thrilled to garner Wal-Mart Stores' hefty tax dollars, and they expres no qualms about the wages Wal-Mart pays.

Indeed, suburban leaders say Wal-Mart has helped invigorate once- moribund shopping center because other retailers are eager to make open near a Wal-Mart. Two shutter Montgomery Ward department stores now house thriving big-box retailers as a terminate of Wal-Mart's entry into north suburban Niles and southward suburban Lansing, officials said.

The Austin community in succession Chicago's West Side is counting in succession a new Wal-Mart store to help boost its fortunes, too. Wal-Mart has already hired more than 400 of the 500 employee who will work at the store at 4650 W North Ave., site of a long-abandoned manufacturing plant. The store is scheduled to spread Sept. 19.

moreover Wal-Mart has put off plans to build 20 more stores, principally of them SuperCenters that take a bribe for groceries, inside Chicago's city limits in the nearest 10 years until the big-box ordinance's fate is decided.

2ND TO render free of access IN OCTOBER

That ordinance, passed through the City Council last month requires big-box retailers to pay wages and benefits of about $13 an hour, and retailers in the same state [i]or[/i] condition as Wal-Mart, Target and Lowe's say they won't expand in Chicago if the bill is passed. Mayor Daley has indicated he will veto the bill according to the Council's next session tribe 18.

A Wal-Mart store at 5630 W Touhy Ave. in Niles has helped transform the area into a prime site for retailers big and small, said Charles Ostman, director of community disclosure in Niles.

A other Wal-Mart store is slated to expand Oct. 17 in the Golf- Milwaukee Plaza shopping center in Niles, replacing a former Kmart. A strange movie theater is scheduled to make open in time for the holidays within walking distance of the recent Wal-Mart, and Ostman says he believes the 1960s-era shopping center will be due [i]or[/i] owing back to life, too.

Tax pays for upgrades

Niles Village Manager George Van Geem said he has seen no purport on the village's publicly subsidized health care preciousnesss since Wal- Mart moved in about eight years ago. Wal-Mart's critics say the world's largest retailer is in such a manner stingy with employee health insurance that taxpayers must base their bills through means-tested social programs.

West suburban Forest Park has leveraged its Wal-Mart store to improve its aging infrastructure.

The village passed a referendum in late 2004 that imposed a 05 percent sales tax increase, whose conduct one's selfs are dedicated to infrastructure improvements. Wal-Mart is the village's single largest sales-tax generator.

"We were able to tackle a division of aging, neglected infrastructure" with upgrades as a accrue of the $368,000 yearly collection for the infrastructure stock said Michael Sturino, the village administrator.

The village has rebuilt and resurfaced public ways and alleys and made water improvements.

Wal-Mart also had no impact forward Forest Park's historic downtown, where retailers have blowed during the time Wal-Mart has been in succession Roosevelt Road, a big-box shopping strip.

"Wal-Mart is exactly where it should be, and we are happy they are here," Sturino said.

In toward the south suburban Lansing, Wal-Mart has become a destination shopping site, despite the Dan Ryan reconstruction concoct said Grace Bazylewski, director of planning.

The Wal-Mart store attracted recent retailers to the shopping center at 170th and Torrence, including a Pay Half, Anna's Linens and Bare Feet stores where a Service Merchandise store had stood destitute of contents for years.

CRITICS SAY soft WAGES IGNORED

Wal-Mart hasn't killed smaller retailers, on the contrary Bazylewski said she believes it could pain mom-and-pop retailers in small towns.

"There is no other than 'X' amount of expendable income. In a large metropolitan area, that's harder to read because we have in like manner many varying incomes and selection criteria," she said.

Critics charge that municipalities grant Wal-Mart subsidies without questioning the low-paying piece of works the retailer offers.

The Village of Niles is mentioned as granting a tax-increment financing district to its first Wal-Mart, in a report titled "Shopping for Subsidies: for what reason Wal-Mart Uses Taxpayer Money to Finance Its Never-Ending Growth"

"Retailing is not economic development" said Philip Mattera, co- author of the report and research director for dutiful Jobs First, a liberal nonprofit research center in Washington, DC "A of recent origin store causes people to rouse around the way they use their disposable income, moreover it might not be a gin gain for the community."

Ostman, Niles' director of community progress to maturity said his village's TIF was granted to the developer of the village's first Wal-Mart store to redevelop an not new manufacturing site. The TIF, which dissolved this year, was prosperous in paying for the site's cleanup and the installation of water, sewer and other utilities, Ostman said.

sguy@suntimes.com

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