Progress Illinois

In a show of victory, about 50 activists returned to the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) yesterday with a giant check for $33 million — and the now infamous golden toilet meant to symbolize the millions of dollars in TIF money allocated to the CME Group to renovate CBOT's bathrooms. The giant check was indicative of the collective $33 million in TIF funds that were returned last week — including the $15 million the CME Group turned down — by Bank of America, CNA, and the financial exchange.

“We took our money back from CME, and now we’re ready to get that money for jobs for our people,” said Charles Brown, a retired police officer and organizer with Action Now, at the rally.

Read more »

The following is an op-ed from Celeste Meiffren, field director with Illinois PIRG.

Yesterday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that he will be immediately implementing some of the reforms proposed by his Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Reform Panel five months ago. All of the proposed reforms are necessary to fix TIF and need to become law before more of our tax dollars are wasted.

Every year, $500 million worth of property tax revenue collected from Chicago taxpayers flows into a funding pool that, up until very recently, has been completely off the books—allowing for an out-of-control spending spree to well-connected developers and other special interests.
Read more »

The city announced that CME Group, Inc. financial exchange elected to turn down $15 million in Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, money.

The announcement came the same day that the Mayor’s office announced TIF reform and two other companies – CNA Group and Bank of America – also returned TIF money. Moreover, CME Group's announcement comes after Stand Up! Chicago delivered a golden toilet to the company’s downtown headquarters last week, partly in protest of their tax incentives.

Read more »

Community organizations declared city hall a crime scene this morning due to proposed cuts to basic city services in Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s budget proposal. The mayor's suggested cuts come while he is simultaneously advocating for tax breaks for profitable corporations. In Emanuel’s current version of the budget, just 20 percent of the tax increment financing (TIF) surplus is directed at aiding the city's more than $600 million budget gap. Activists and aldermen would like to see at least 50 percent of the $300 million surplus added to this year's budget as a way to avoid cuts to critical services.

“Corporate Chicago continues to have access to hundreds of millions of dollars of our tax dollars,” said Beniamino Capellupo, an organizer with Grassroots Collaborative who dressed up as Sherlock Holmes to investigate the crime scene. “The mayor and our alderman still have the chance to do the right thing by working families in Chicago and declare greater a TIF surplus so that our tax dollars keep our mental health clinics open, our schools vibrant and our libraries available.”

Read more »

Take Back Chicago activists focused their efforts on the plight of Chicago schools yesterday targeting toxic financial deals and corporate welfare through tax increment financing districts (TIFs).

In the afternoon, more than 100 people set their sights on the Bank of America headquarters, a popular spot for protests this week, by marching through its lobby. Community groups, along with members of the Chicago Teachers Union, want the bank to renegotiate financial deals with Chicago Public Schools that they claim are costing the eductaion system $36 million every year.

Read more »

The following is an op-ed by Amisha Patel, executive director of the Grassroots Collaborative.

The report released by Inspector General Joe Ferguson on Monday that documents developers being forced to donate taxpayer dollars to the politically-connected After School Matters underscores the point that the TIF system must be reformed.

It is troubling that Chicago taxpayer money was abused so egregiously by city officials. Even more worrisome, the city continues to lack transparency in TIF deals, allowing the continued possibility of corruption in taxpayer dollars.

Read more »

Chicagoans rallied outside the downtown office of United Airlines yesterday, saying the airline should return the $31 million in TIF money the company has received since 2007.

The company has received $50 million in subsidies over the last four years and community leaders say taxpayers and their communities need their money back.

Read more »

In their latest movement against “corporate welfare,” local community leaders lead by the Grassroots Collaborative hit the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

With 10 children in school desks on the sidewalk on Monroe Street near Wacker Drive in Chicago, the so-called “street-theater” demonstration was staged as a class. Its main lesson: how tax increment financing takes away money from schools.

Read more »