This was the 45th TIF Illumination from the TIF Illumination Project (http://www.tifreports.com). We lit up the seven TIFs of the 24th ward on November 11, 2015. We were at St. Agatha's Church in Lawndale. The presenter was Tom Tresser. We do training, workshops and presentations on TIFs and local economic development. Contact us at info@civiclab.us. The full deck of slides is available for $5.00 at The TIF Data Store at http://www.tifreports.com/store.

1. November 11, 2015
Tom Tresser

2. 2

3. 3
Key Policy Questions
1. Under what circumstances do we give public $ to private
business?
2. Who plans what for whom? AKA, What defines
“community development”?
3. Is Chicago broke?
4. Who’s watching our back? Need for new leaders.

4. 4
What are TIFs?

5. 5
What are TIFs?
• Created by municipality (state law)
• Designed to subsidize some business
project in “blighted” or under-served
area
• Captures “incremental” property taxes
ABOVE base when district was created
• Only for hard costs
• Lasts 23 years
• Supposed to be spent where collected

6. 6
How Do TIFs Work?
When the TIF is created,
the city tallies up all the
property taxes
generated by district in
that year (called the
"base" amount). After
that, all property tax
increases above the
base (the "increment")
are channeled to the TIF
district.
The property taxes
collected from
properties inside the
district BEFORE the
district was created
that go to units of
government stays
FLAT for the life of the
TIF (23 years).

7. 7
Money From TIFs Taken From?

8. 8
What are TIFs?
Under state law, areas proposed for TIF designation
must possess numerous blighting factors to be
eligible:
• Age
• Obsolescence
• Code violations
• Excessive vacancies
• Overcrowding of facilities

9. 9
TIFs Usedto support commercial projects in these“Blighted”
Areas
40 S. Halsted
Apple Store

10. 10Better Government Association

11. 11

12. 12

13. 13

14. 14
Where are TIFs?
2014
Chicago = 147
Suburbs = 286
Cook County = 433

15. 15

16. 16
Mr. TIF

18. To sum up:
 TIFs = property taxes
 Increment $ collected by TIF
 Run by city (mayor)
 Lasts 23 years
 Blight & “But for” conditions
 Hard costs
 Supposed to be spent where
collected

19. 19
What are TIFs?

20. 20
TIFs of the 24th Ward
The next set of slides shows the details of the seven TIFs of
the 24th ward.
• How much we estimate they took FROM the ward in 2014
• How much left over in those accounts FROM the ward at
the end of 2014
• What projects funded by TIFs IN the ward
• The proposed changes to the Midwest TIF
You get purchase the full deck from our TIF Data Store for $5
by clicking over to http://www.tifreports.com/store.
Our work is popular, useful and powerful but is NOT being
supported by foundations who SAY they support civic
engagement, innovations in journalism or government
accountability efforts. It’s up to YOU to keep us going.

22. 188 W. Randolph Street –
Randolph Tower
Apartments
230 N. Michigan Avenue –
Hard Rock Hotel
555 W. Monroe Street –
PepsiCo
TIF $ in the 42nd Ward

23. 123 S. Dearborn Street –
Dearborn Center
32 W. Randolph Street –
Oriental Theater
1 N. Dearborn Street - Sears
TIF $ in the 42nd Ward

24. 24
TIF $ in the 4TH Ward

25. 25
$11 million in TIF funds for the Pullman Park
development in the 9th Ward

26. TIF FUNDS IN THE 46th WARD
Lincoln
Park

27. Coming to the 10th Ward

28. Where are Parks MOST Needed?

29. TIF Funds in the 3rd Ward
UPDATE - $55 MILLION TIF
FUNDING SHIFTED FROM
DePAUL STADIUM TO
MARRIOTT HOTEL .
PIER AUTHORITY TO PUT UP
$100 MILLION FOR
STADIUM PROJECT.

30. 30
$12.8 billion revenues in 2013

31. 31
TIFs hoard
taxes in
prosperous
communities
– starve poor
communities.

32. 32
http://tinyurl.com/Empty-All-TIFs

33. 33
We are researching legal challenges
to the TIF Program in Chicago (and
across Illinois). If you would like to
be part of a possible legal challenge,
let us know.
tom@civiclab.us

34. 34
DVD with 2 TIF training videos + 2 bonus tracks
Nifty TIF Illumination poster

35. 35
www.tifreports.com
tom@civiclab.us
312-804-3230