Red Line South TIF approved by City Council committee

The City Council’s Finance Committee agreed Monday to create a new transit tax increment finance district to help pay for the $3.6 billion cost of extending the CTA’s Red Line from 95th Street to 130th Street. (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times file)

A mass transit dream decades in the making took a giant step closer to becoming a Chicago reality on Monday.

In five different votes during a daylong meeting, the City Council’s Finance Committee agreed to create a new transit tax increment finance district to bankroll $959 million of the $3.6 billion cost of extending the CTA’s Red Line from 95^th Street to 130^th Street.