Tax Increment Financing districts in Chicago are a BIG deal!

In 2017 145 active TIFs extracted $493 million in property taxes and diverted that money FROM the units of local government that rely on property taxes to operate.

Since TIFs came to Chicago in 1985 they have taken over $7 BILLION off the table.

At the end of 2017 there was $1.44 BILLION in property taxes sitting in the TIF accounts.

In 2017 TIFs spent $321 million, including $75 million in finance fees to banks for loans incurred in the past.

The TIF Illumination Project has been tracking and exposing TIFs across Chicago since 2013.

We have been invited to present our research at 75 public meetings in front of over 6,300 people.

Here's what we found:

• TIFs are a secretive and clout-driven program that showers public funds on private businesses
• TIFs divert desperately need public dollars FROM vital public agencies - most notably, our public schools
• TIFs hand-cuff public funds in wealthy areas and PREVENT the use of public funds in poorer communities - they are non-progressive, anti-distributive and contribute to the ongoing disinvestment in our neglected communities
• TIFs have the greatest negative impact on our communities of color and are, sadly, part of a long history of racist planning and economic policies here that include red-lining and predatory lending

THEREFORE, WE THE PEOPLE OF CHICAGO DEMAND THAT NO NEW TIFs BE CREATED AND THAT THE ENTIRE PROGRAM BE FROZEN AND NO FUNDS BE DISTRIBUTED VIA THE TIF PROGRAM UNTIL IT CAN AUDITED BY AN INDEPENDENT BODY THAT INCLUDES REPRESENTATIVES FROM GRASSROOTS COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS AND UNTIL THAT AUDIT BE DISTRIBUTED TO THE PUBLIC AND WIDELY DISCUSSED AND DEBATED.