The tax break for Broadway-bound shows may well attract more such shows to Chicago, and that may well be a point of pride for the city. But I can’t help thinking these are insufficient reasons to offer a tax break to successful commercial theater producers, especially at a time when the property tax break enjoyed by nonprofit theater producers is under threat from Springfield as well as from the County Assessor’s office.

Relatively few theaters will be affected by either of these proposals, so they’re not worth fulminating against—and if they were, I’ve already done it. Precisely a year ago I held forth on the subject of nonprofit taxes; two months ago it was the Broadway-in-Chicago giveaway. When we debate the subject on Friday on Eight Forty-Eight, Jonathan won’t know what hit him.