It was unexpected.

No, we weren’t expecting Ald. Burnett’s two-pronged broadside Monday at the finance committee. He demanded his constituents get access to new schools funded by tax increment financing dollars coming out of districts that overlap with his ward, and he critiqued about how the Daley administration distributes TIF dollars for “their” projects but not aldermanic ones.

Whether you agree with Burnett or not — read our story “In and out” in this week’s Journal and the brief “Their projects, our projects” for details — Burnett’s speech Monday was yet another example of the corrosive effect the dramatic expansion of TIF districts has had on Chicago.

Instead of sending hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes to local taxing bodies, where they can be spent — for the most part — according to agency budgets, TIF dollars are instead stashed away in neighborhood-by-neighborhood funds, with the dollars often distributed opaquely.

Residents living in TIF districts know some portion of the taxes are rebounding into the TIF funds. They lay claim to the money and access to resources TIF dollars pay for, and are often backed up in this regard by their aldermen. TIFs start to be seen as a community’s personal piggy bank. This is unsurprising, as community residents and local businesses pay into them.

So when the money is spent unexpectedly, or sent outside of the district for projects, or community needs go unaddressed, or an alderman’s priorities are pushed to the wayside, bitterness ensues. Tax dollars start to be seen not as part of a citywide, we’re-in-this-together whole, but rather smaller constituent parts — 153 of them, really, the number of districts spread across the city.

This is what’s corrosive.

Burnett’s speech Monday about the TIF process was a tree-level affair. He’s playing the game as it’s been set up, and we can’t blame him for doing so. But the city council still needs to see the TIF forest. And reform it.