The 11 tax increment financing, or TIF, districts in the 4th Ward
took $5.6 million in property taxes from those living within the
boundaries in 2011, the CivicLab revealed at TIF town hall meeting
Monday night.
Four of those districts fall nearly 100 percent
inside of the ward and had extracted about $42 million from property
taxpayers since the start of the TIF program back in 1986 through 2011, said Tom Tresser,
co-founder of the CivicLab and leader of the of volunteer-based TIF Illumination Project.
Monday’s
TIF town hall was the CivicLab’s eighth community meeting. Tresser and
other “TIF illuminators” are holding meetings across the city in an
effort to raise awareness about Chicago’s economic development program.
The CivicLab's project sets out to find what wards are TIF "winners" or
"losers."
Craig Coleman, a 10-year resident of the 4th Ward, said
Monday night was the first time he heard exactly how much property tax dollars
local residents had kicked into the program. He raised concerns about
the TIF program’s lack of accountability and transparency.
“I
think it’s money off the books that should be put back on the books,”
Coleman said in remarks after the meeting, held at Room 43 in Kenwood.
“How do you change it, and does your alderman control this or ... who
controls the law to change this? When it’s time for the mayoral
elections, does it get swept under the rug like everything else?”
The following is written by Keith Kelleher is president of SEIU* Healthcare Illinois Indiana.
Volunteers with Chicago's 
Residents of Chicago's 11th Ward were outraged upon learning that $57.4
million in property tax money was sitting in their tax increment financing
(TIF) districts' collective bank accounts at the end of 2011, according
to data unveiled by the CivicLab.
Property taxpayers in Englewood were furious upon learning at a town
hall meeting Saturday that their tax dollars had contributed at least $44 million to the
Englewood Neighborhood Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District since it
rolled out in 2001. According to data from the CivicLab's TIF Illumination
Project, some $44 million of taxpayer dollars had funneled to the TIF district between 2001 and 2011.
The city’s tax increment financing, or TIF, program is an economic
development tool, but it should really be called a Chicago bailout for
private companies, some Uptown residents said at a town hall meeting Thursday night as part of the CivicLab’s 
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 