Historian and reporter for The Nation Rick Perlstein is doing a series of articles on the perils of privatization. In this 13 minute interview on WBEZ he lays out the reasons to be very skeptical about the sorts of deals Chicago is “forcing down the throats” of the taxpayers. He gives a shout out to the work of Tom Tresser and the CivicLab.
I’ll be presenting on the TIFs of the 20th Ward at this community forum.
TIF Illuminator Tom Tresser joins TIF and urban policy expert Rachel Weber on a panel discussing TIFs at the UIC School of Social Work on November 21. This forum is a project of a class at the Jane Addams School of Social Work. 9am to 11am at 1040 W. Harrison Street, Room 4013.
I was asked to give a few “now what” remarks at the end of this forum on running for office in 2015 as progressive standard bearer. Listen to these remarks (with introduction, 4 1/2 minutes).
How can Chicago be broke? The city has paid out $737.1 MILLION in legal settlement and judgement expenses in the nine years of 2003 to 2012. 65% of that is police-related litigation.
$96 MILLION has been spent by the City and Cook County defending Jon Burge and settling with his victims.
In addition, the City has spent $176 million over the past eight years in outside legal fees!
The City has spent a whopping $913,1 MILLION on legal messes.
I should’ve gone to law school!
I gave this presentation to the Loyola Law School’s Public Interest Law Program Thursday. The audio is 47 minutes. If you’d like a copy, email me at tom@tresser.com.
Watch this creative and fast moving seven minute video from WBEZ’s “Curious City” Project. Learn more at the CivicLab’s TIF Illumination Project. Do I look better animated?
It was a packed house at the 33rd Ward TIF Illumination on August 8, 2013! Over 120 people filled the community room at the Christ Lutheran Church in Albany Park to learn the details of the four TIFs in their ward. Aldermen Deb Mell and Ray Colon attended the full meeting and heard from parents and school children on the devastating impacts of the recently announced school cuts on their lives. They Aldermen were asked to pledge to take the $1.7 billion from the TIF accounts and send that money to the units of government that should’ve received those funds in the first place. They did so. Then they were asked to sign a giant check for $850,000,000 – the public’s share of that money. They did so!
The meeting was organized by The Albany Park Neighborhood Council.
Review the presentation by Tom Tresser here.
Add your voice to the demand that the Mayor empty the TIF accounts and put that money to work for the people by signing this petition.
From a press conference held outside the State of Illinois Building on August 2, 2013. The Chicago Teachers Union and the RAISE your Hand Coalition of concerned public school parents delivered a letter to Attorney General Lisa Madigan asking her to get the true story of where our $1.7 billion in TIF funds are being held.
Join with over 3,000 people who have signed this online petition to the mayor from The TIF Illumination Project demanding that the TIF accounts be emptied and all property taxes turned over to the units of government that should’ve gotten those dollars in the first place.