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Tax Increment Financing
PI Original
by Adam Doster
2:19pm
Wed May 19, 2010
33 comments

A Teacher's Fight To Open Up Chicago's TIF Budget

Tax increment financing

A Chicago high school teacher is preparing to sue the city for refusing to answer inquiries about its tax increment financing budget.

PI Original
by Adam Doster
10:35am
Fri May 14, 2010
13 comments

Dowell: "We Really Need To Look At This Whole TIF Issue" (VIDEO)

Tax Increment Financing

After the excitement of last year's TIF reform discussion, it had been a while since we'd heard aldermen take to the council floor to criticize the system. On Wednesday, they did just that.

PI Original
by Adam Doster
3:21pm
Wed Apr 14, 2010
6 comments

TIF And The Living Wage: Two Birds, One Stone (VIDEO)

Wages

If a newly-introduced ordinance passes the Chicago City Council, companies who accept any public subsidy from the city -- including tax increment financing dollars -- would required to pay their workers a living wage.

Quick Hit
by Adam Doster
1:01pm
Thu Mar 18, 2010
28 comments

The Danger Of STAR Bonds

What Rich Miller described last year as the "worst bill ever" is back from the grave. In the fall, Gov. Pat Quinn vetoed SB 1909, which would have established a sales tax revenue (STAR) district in Glen Carbon, where developers from the University Town Center group are planning to build a $1.5 billion entertainment center. Sen. James Clayborne  (D-East St. Louis) and Rep. Tom Holbrook (D-Belleville) have introduced a new measure this year (SB 2093) reviving the project.

If you follow the debate over tax increment financing, this should look familiar. If a STAR bond district is approved by the General Assembly, developers capture all of the state sales tax proceeds generated by businesses in that district. They can then take that money, bond it, and use the cash flow to build out their project. Taxpayers across Illinois, unfortunately, lose out. A new study by the St. Louis-based Peckham Guyton Albers & Viets Inc. estimates that the state will lose $729 million in sales tax revenue over 20 years if the project is paid for using STAR bonds. Decreased retail spending in other parts of the region would also starve metro-east communities of some $400 million in retail sales annually.

To get caught up on the debate, read Miller's post from last year, which explains in depth how local lawmakers across Illinois could use (and abuse) this model.

Quick Hit
by Josh Kalven
5:51pm
Tue Mar 9, 2010

TIF Tantrum

Over the years, we've written a lot about the need for better tax increment financing (TIF) oversight and transparency in the City of Chicago.  Maybe it's time this effort extended to the state as a whole.

Today, SouthtownStar columnist Phil Kadner notes that a TIF lawyer stole between $1 million and $3 million from a district in south suburban Calumet Park. For years, he overcharged the municipality for legal work that wasn't even being done.  All the while, he neglected to send state-mandated annual financial reports for the district to Comptroller Dan Hynes, who repeatedly notified Calumet Park of the failure to comply, but never took further action.  When confronted, a spokesperson for the comptroller said the office's only responsibility is to "collect the reports."  Kadner's response: "So you need a law telling the comptroller to notify the attorney general when a municipality fails to file reports for nine years? How about using some common sense?"  Read the whole piece here.

PI Original
by Angela Caputo
4:23pm
Mon Mar 8, 2010

Bringing TIF Back To Its Roots (VIDEO)

Tax Increment Financing

On Wednesday, Chicago Ald. Walter Burnett (27th Ward) and a handful of co-sponsors will introduce an ordinance that would require the city to set aside 20 percent of all new tax increment financing (TIF) revenue to jumpstart affordable housing projects. We look at how such an investment would buoy the city's housing market and create jobs.

PI Original
by Angela Caputo
3:41pm
Fri Mar 5, 2010
3 comments

"A Problem We Can't Ignore Any More" (VIDEO)

Education

All eyes are on Springfield as cash-strapped school districts look to state lawmakers to throw them a rope before they fall off "the cliff" this fall. But some Chicago Public Schools students are wondering if Mayor Daley is doing all he can to find local resources to blunt the impact of the state cuts.

PI Original
by Angela Caputo
1:39pm
Thu Mar 4, 2010
9 comments

What's New On The Housing Front

Housing

We round out the latest legislative iniatives in Illinois regarding foreclosure prevention and affordable housing.

PI Original
by Adam Doster
1:20pm
Fri Feb 5, 2010
5 comments

Avoiding A Property Tax Backlash

Taxes

In November, Indiana voters will likely pass a referendum enshrining property tax caps in the state constitution. Illinoisians bear an even heavier property tax burden than their neighbors to the east. But before anyone starts thinking about similar caps here, there are two other legislative approaches to lowering the property tax burden that should be considered: tax increment financing (TIF) reform and a modernization of the state's income tax system.