Category Archives: Community

DePaul Wants $103 Million Of Our Dollars

The Mayor has announced plans for hundreds of millions of dollars on tourism-related construction, including 10,000 seat basketball arena for DePaul University near McCormick Place. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the project will require $103 million in public finance and TIF-related dollars. Read DePaul’s description of the project.

When you read the hype, you hear phrases like “world-class destination” and “tourism mecca” being offered as visions for the city. The plan includes giving DePaul naming rights to the new stadium. The President of DePaul, Rev. Dennis Holtschneider said “I’d like to keep our student tuition from rising. Any way we can keep the cost down so I don’t have to put this on student tuition is a wonderful thing.” I’d like to keep my property tax bills down. I’d like to keep our public schools open and hire more teachers. I’d like to expand public transportation, not cut service. Giving DePaul, the largest Catholic university in America over $100 million of public dollars for a private stadium is a gross misuse of public funds.

DePaul’s 2013-2014_budget is expecting revenues of $629,557,366! Why do they need our $103 million for their facility?

It’s another example of…

4th Ward TIFs To Be Illuminated!

It’s time to shed some light on the 11 TIFs inside the 4th Ward. Join us on Monday, May 13 at 6pm at Room 43 to learn:

– How much property tax is extracted from each TIF inside the ward

– How much money FROM the ward was left in the TIFs at the end of 2011

– What projects inside the ward got funded

You can get the details and RSVP here: http://tinyurl.com/TIF-Forum-May-13.

Pass The Privatization Transparency Ordinance

Is your alderman on the list of sponsors of the Privatization Transparency Ordinance”? If so, call them and tell them to get it out of Alderman Mell’s committee and have voted on by the full City Council.

The sponsor is 6th Ward Alderman, Roderick Sawyer. He said, upon introducing this bill in November of 2012, “I do not believe that there are no good privatization deals, I just think we should be clear about which deals are in the best interest of the city and which are not. I have a concern about touting a monetary savings if we haven’t thought about the people that will lose a job, the families that could lose a home and the local businesses that could lose a loyal customer. ”
Download the proposed law here – Privatization Transparency and Accountability Ordinance. Read it for yourself.

If our City Council can’t pass this, they should all be fired in the 2015 municipal elections.

Englewood Neighborhood TIF Illuminated May 4

Join us in Englewood on Saturday, May 4 at 10am at the Kelly Library when we Illuminate just one TIF. We will be exposing the Englewood Neighborhood TIF that morning. Details and RSVP via Facebook @ http://tinyurl.com/TIF-Forum-May-4.

To get you in the mood to Illuminate, take this quick multiple choice question.

If you live inside the Englewood Neighborhood TIF, you would see that it is shown on your property tax bill as having “0” impact – that is, no property taxes taken. However, the TRUE percentage of your property taxes gobbled up by that TIF is:

(a) 16%
(b) 27%
(c) 48%
(d) 68%

We’ll reveal the answer, and many more amazing facts about TIFs, on May 4!

46th Ward Gets Illuminated April 11!

Join us at The Peoples Church on April 11 at 7pm when we Illuminate the six TIFs inside the 46th Ward. If the last five TIF town meetings are any guides, then this meeting is going to ROCK! You can get the details and RSVP via Facebook @ http://tinyurl.com/TIF-Forum-April-11.

We invite to learn what TIFs are doing in YOUR community. TO schedule a TIF Illumination for your ward, email tom@civiclab.us.

8th and 9th Ward TIFs Illuminated

Review the presentation deck and listen to the audio (47 minutes) from the TIF Town Meeting held on April 6 at Chicago State University. 9th ward Alderman Anthony Beale came in about half-way through the presentation and stayed to answer a number of heated questions from attendees.

TIFs in the 8th and 9th Wards from Thomas Tresser

8th & 9th Ward Double Illumination

Join us at Chicago State University on Saturday, April 6. We will be Illuminating the many, many TIFs inside the 8th and 9th Wards. Details and RSVP at Facebook = http://tinyurl.com/TIF-Forum-April-6

The evolving schedule and documentation of past meetings is at http://tifreports.com/tif-town-meetings.

Coverage Of 7th Ward Illumination

In 30+ years of civic engagement work I’ve never seen a project take off like this. This was the fourth TIF town meeting in seven weeks. There are four more coming up and four more after that in the works!

From Progress Illinois, “Dozens of South Shore residents weren’t too happy upon learning that a portion of their property taxes have been used as part of the city’s tax increment financing, or TIF, program.

Tom Tresser, co-founder of the CivicLab, came to the 7th Ward, and is heading to others, as part of the volunteer-based TIF Illumination Project, which is intended to promote TIF transparency and provide Chicago residents with a snapshot of what the program is — or isn’t — doing for their communities.

“I can’t believe that it’s so much money that’s out there that the community does not know about that’s not channeling back into our community, especially with all the schools closing,” Renita Jones, a South Shore resident of more than 14 years, said after Saturday’s meeting.

“It’s just amazing to me that (the city is) saying there’s no funds, and we have millions of [TIF] dollars that’s available that’s going to the corporate district, but the lower-class people are suffering from it,” Jones added.”

TIF Town Hall Meeting In South Shore March 30

Join us in South Shore on Saturday, March 30 to talk TIFs in the 7th Ward. We’ll be Illuminating the five active TIFs there. Preview: In 2011 those TIFs extracted $1.4 million from property owners in the 7th Ward.
Details of the event on Facebook.

TIF Illumination On WVON March 23

TIF Illuminators Tom Tresser and Bea Jasper (organizer of the Englewood TIF Town Meeting) will be on “The GreenPreneur Show” on WVON on Saturday night, March 23, from 5-6pm. Listen live here. The call in number is 773-591-1690. Let’s talk TIFs on the South Side. Our next TIF Town Meeting is in South Shore on March 30. Connect with the TIF Illumination Project.