This is the presentation given at the March 16, 2013 TIF Town Meeting in Washington Park by Tom Tresser, Lead Organize of the TIF Illumination Project (http://www.tifreports.com) a work of the CivicLab (http://www.civiclab.us). Radio host, Washington Park resident and former Alderman of the 20th Ward, Cliff Kelley was the moderator. If you would like your own copy of this presentation that shows all the data from this ward as well as examples from the TIF Hall of Shame, please visit The TIF Data Store @ http://tinyurl.com/TIF-Data-Store. The TIF Illumination Project is 100% volunteer driven but we have serious monthly expenses to operate the CivicLab, our home, plus we’d like to build an online platform to make this information easy to access. Thanks! Contact = info@civiclab.us www.civiclab.us www.tifreports.com

1. March 16, 2013
Tom Tresser

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www.civiclab.us

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4. In the evening – open enrollment workshops on all things civic...
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“TIF 101”
“Vegan Cooking”

5. Watch the 2 ½ minute promo @ http://tinyurl.com/TIF-101-promo-YT
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What are TIFs?

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What are TIFs?
• Created by municipality (state statute)
• Designed to subsidize some business project in “blighted”
or under-served area
• “But for” concept – The project WOULD NOT happen
except for receiving public subsidy
• Boundaries cross political and community boundaries
• Captures “incremental” property taxes ABOVE base when
district was created
• Lasts 23 years

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What are TIFs?
Source: UIC TIF Information Forum

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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).

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Where are TIFs?
• All over Chicago and Cook
County = 443 TIFs in 2011
• 163 in city of Chicago
• Additional 280 in suburban
Cook County

11. Where are TIFs?
TIF 101 11

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Where are TIFs?
Source: Cook County Clerk

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How Much Revenue Do TIFs Collect?
Source: Cook County Clerk

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How Much Revenue Do TIFs Collect?
2011 TOTAL TIF REVENUE FOR COOK COUNTY
City of Chicago
TIFs diverted $454 MILLION
Suburban Cook County
TIFs diverted $275 MILLION
TOTAL FOR 2011 = $729 MILLION

15. How Much Revenue Do TIFs Collect?
TIFs extracted $454 million in 2011.
That # is 53% of the TOTAL amount
of property taxes that went to the city
for its operations!
TIF 101 15

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How Much Revenue Do TIFs Collect?

17. How Much Revenue Do TIFs Collect?
Ouch!
$4.5 BILLION
DIVERTED
SINCE 1986!
TIF 101 17

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Click here to open
the 163 PDF
annual reports.
One by one.

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THE CITY HAD
$1.3 BILLION IN
UNSPENT TIF FUNDS
AT THE END OF 2011!

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Impact of TIFs?

25. You can get presentations from ALL our TIF Illuminations online at
the TIF Data Store at http://tinyurl.com/TIF-Data-Store. These
presentations will tell you:
- how many TIFs in the ward
- estimation of TIF property tax extraction from TIFs in the ward for
latest year
- if a TIF is 100% or close to 100% in ward, lifetime property tax
extraction
- how much money left in those TIF accounts FROM the ward
- what projects funded by TIFs in the ward
- examples from the TIF Hall of Shame
If this information is valuable to you, please sign up for our mailing
list at http://tinyurl.com/SignUp-CivicLab. If you are in Chicago and
need a place to work - consider co-working at the Lab!
Please support the work of the CivicLab by making a deductible
contribution via our fiscal agent, the Investigative News Network, at
http://tinyurl.com/SupportTheLab-INN.
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Find out more - info@civiclab.us.

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www.civiclab.us
www.tifreports.com