The Lawndale Alliance ____________________________________________ North Lawndale Community News

Training Session
Saturday afternoon, July 23, 2011 3:00 pm-6:00 pm 10th District Police Station, 3315 West Ogden.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has created a special Task Force to evaluate Chicago's Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Program to determine whether taxpayer dollars are being used efficiently and to better promote public and private investment across the city. The task force advises that TIF funds are used to build and repair roads and infrastructure, clean polluted land and put vacant properties back to productive use, usually in conjunction with private development projects. In order to improve and strengthen the TIF program, the Mayor's Task Force needs is seeking your help! They have created an interactive website for residents to contribute their ideas and give feedback on how best to improve the TIF program. This packet will allow us to brainstorm and discuss issues that are important to you and give instructions or assistance with communication this information to the Mayors Task Force.

What Dont You Like?

Exercise designed by Jimmy Lee Lard

The Time for TIF Reform is NOW!

Here are topics from the Mayors Task Force website along with their posted comments/responses. In this session we should explore how this topic impacts our community, determine if there are any comments or responses that we, as a group or as individuals, should post to the website and be used to create our community agenda to be presented to the mayor. Use the space provided to respond to any of these topics.

If anything, what do you NOT like about TIFs?

Responses: 5 COMMENTS: 1. - Arbitrary nature - seems to be clout driven and unconnected to any planning process - Giving taxpayer money to wealthy developers and large corporations (MillerCoors, Mercantile Exchange, United Airlines, Willis Insurance, Grossinger Auto) while laying off 1,000 teachers. - Program diverts property taxes from units of government that rely on them for operation and creates shadow budget easy to manipulate and very hard to monitor TIFs took $519 million in Chicago property taxes in 2009. What happened to that money. At the end of 2009 there was about $1.4 billion in OUR property taxes sitting in TIF accounts. - What long range agreements are in place to encumber our property taxes? Who made these agreements? - The program appears to operating directly opposite from how it was supposed to Views: 176

Exercise designed by Jimmy Lee Lard

work - transferring assets out of poor communities while the wealthiest get the bulk of TIF dollars for improvements and projects. - There is no evaluation and no accountability for seeing that promises made to secure TIF subsidies have actually been delivered - no job creation and no other measure of economic impact. In fact, there are studies that say that cities that use TIFs fare WORSE than cities that do NOT use them. Show us the proof they work.

2. Things that make TIFs sketchy: - no evidence that they improve economic conditions over simply spending tax revenues on local services - TIFs reenforce fiefdoms of aldermen at expense of coherent economic plan for all of Chicago - money for one-off TIFs could be spend on business incentives, regulatory reform, regulatory enforcement, and improving business services from city to drive development for all, not the chose few who work the TIF process 3. First one must question: Why is there a Task Force being formed? I do not have a Degree in Finance. I am not an Elected Official. I am a City Employee. And let me state for the record, I believe "Tax Increment Financing"...TIF's, are and economic force that, when used properly, do work. Its proved to be an economic recovery tool across the country. That said, ABUSED, they lead to budget deficits, like the one the
Exercise designed by Jimmy Lee Lard

City of Chicago has been facing now since 2006. The 161 TIF Districts( now reduced) have generated revenues of $500 million dollars annually.{ David ORR's website break down, visit the website, very informantive} As stated earlier I am not a Finance Major, but I do know how to add, and 1+1=2. TIF revenues, that is monies generated from(diverted) from Cook County Property taxes to TIF districts ultimately decrease the amount of money specifically allocated for each taxing body..ie; Schools,Parks,Public safety,etc.... Heres a very simple example: I own a property for 10 years, my property taxes for those years average $2000 a year, a break down of how those taxes are distributed are on the tax bill( this break down includes Pension Payments). So that $2000 I pay a year is based on a tax levy issued by each of the taxing bodies seeking a tax levy( schools,parks, public safety...etc). In the 11th year the City creates a TIF district in my neighborhood, and lets say for this example my Property taxes increase to $3000 a year, but they really don't. Yes I physically pay the $3000 but $3000 DOES NOT go to the taxing bodies only $2000 does. You see $1000 gets generated(diverted) to the TIF area. Thats where things get screwy...and because of State Law it happens for 23 years. So now my newly found TIF area becomes gentirfied, new buildings, which house new restaurants, which creates new taxes and more buildings and more Property tax revenues and so on and so on and so.......Now in then 16th year of owning my property, my property taxes have escalated to $15000 a year and my 12 NEW neighbors in their brand new 12 condo building in old the vacant lot that used to be next door also have $15000 property tax bills. Well this is where it gets VERY VERY CLEAR, the 13 of us just generated $193,000 dollars for our TIF distirct. My $13,000

Exercise designed by Jimmy Lee Lard

($15000-$2000 original taxes before TIF's froze them) and ALL 12 of my neighbors NEW $15,000 property Taxes. 13 properties create $2000 for schools, parks, public safety etc, and $193,000 for a TIF District....AND THIS HAPPENS FOR 17 more years and this is just 2 buildings. There's 150+ TIF areas in Chicago!!!! $193000 not going to Schools, Parks, Public Safety, all equal one big $1.4 billion Dollar Shortfall($700 million for general operating budget and $700 million for Schools) and thats Just for 2012!!!!!!! My answer to the question you posed " If anything, what do you Not like about TIF's?" The Steal hard working peoples money!!!!!! Drop your "silly" TIF Task Force, pick up a Copy of Congressman Mike Quigley's TIF report or Call Ben Jovarsky at the Chicago Reader. Then, get rid of them all and start over!!! Use TIF's as the tool they were designed for...... Blighted areas. If you have any questions I can be reached for more in depth conversation at 312.813.3147...I didnt even get started about the Pension Problems TIF's created!!! John McGILL

4. No accountability for where/how the money is spent. As a resident of the Near North TIF, I am incredibly disturbed to see $10,000,000 (basically one full year of the area's tax revenue) going to build the new, state-of-theart Jesse White community center. I would imagine a perfectly sufficient community

Exercise designed by Jimmy Lee Lard

center could be built for FAR LESS than $10 million.....?!?!?! This, while the most basic needs in this area are still NOT being funded.....(ie: damaged roads in need of repair and resurfacing, general safety of existing residents, cleaning up negative businesses, vacant lots, attracting positive businesses to the area, etc). If the point of TIFs is to improve infrastructure and fund basic improvements in blighted areas, why are these BASIC improvements being ignored? Spending TIF $$ on an outrageously expensive community center is quite ironic in an area where tax-payers worry about their safety and drive on damaged roads and HOPE that one day a positive business will actually want to move into the area. If money isn't spent on these basic needs very soon, myself and the other taxpayers who support this neighborhood will be gone. Bye-bye tax revenue.

5. One problem is that TIF districts are around for too long. 23 years for all of them. The duration of the district should be related to the projects anticipated in them. Planning and development takes time but 23 years is excessive in most cases. For some, 5 or 10 years should be enough to address some key issues, jump start things, and then let the natural market take over. In some rare cases perhaps 15 years would be needed, but 23? Not needed. Look at the Near West TIF, it's done it's job. When it's been a success, ie achieved goals stated in the TIF plan, it should then be judged done and dissolved, then the county and city could properly reap the benefits of its success by having that increased increment go back to the taxing districts as it was intended to do. This

Exercise designed by Jimmy Lee Lard

small change to all the TIF districts would probably solve a lot of the budget issues. - a Planner who has worked on TIF projects.

6. Your Comment/Response: _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________

Exercise designed by Jimmy Lee Lard

Exercise designed by Jimmy Lee Lard