tifs what dont you like[1]

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  • 8/6/2019 TIFS What Dont You Like[1]

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    Exercise designed by Jimmy Lee Lard

    Mayor Rahm Emanuel has created a specialTask Force to evaluate Chicago's TaxIncrement Financing (TIF) Program todetermine whether taxpayer dollars are

    being used efficiently and to better promotepublic and private investment across thecity. The task force advises that TIF fundsare used to build and repair roads and

    infrastructure, clean polluted land and putvacant properties back to productive use,usually in conjunction with privatedevelopment projects.

    In order to improve and strengthen the TIF

    program, the Mayor's Task Force needs isseeking your help! They have created aninteractive website for residents tocontribute their ideas and give feedback onhow best to improve the TIF program.

    This packet will allow us to brainstorm anddiscuss issues that are important to youand give instructions or assistance with

    communication this information to theMayors Task Force.

    What Dont You Like?

    Training SessionSaturday afternoon, July 23, 20113:00 pm-6:00 pm10th District Police Station, 3315 West Ogden.

    The Lawndale Alliance____________________________________________

    North Lawndale Community News

    The Time for TIF Reform is NOW!

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    Exercise designed by Jimmy Lee Lard

    Here are topics from the Mayors Task Force website along with their posted comments/responses. In this sessionwe should explore how this topic impacts our community, determine if there are any comments or responses thatwe, as a group or as individuals, should post to the website and be used to create our community agenda to bepresented to the mayor. Use the space provided to respond to any of these topics.

    If anything, what do you NOT like about TIFs?

    Responses: 5 Views: 176

    COMMENTS:

    1. - Arbitrary nature - seems to be clout driven and unconnected to any planningprocess

    - Giving taxpayer money to wealthy developers and large corporations (MillerCoors,Mercantile Exchange, United Airlines, Willis Insurance, Grossinger Auto) while layingoff 1,000 teachers.

    - Program diverts property taxes from units of government that rely on them foroperation and creates shadow budget easy to manipulate and very hard to monitor -TIFs took $519 million in Chicago property taxes in 2009. What happened to thatmoney. At the end of 2009 there was about $1.4 billion in OUR property taxes sittingin TIF accounts.

    - What long range agreements are in place to encumber our property taxes? Whomade these agreements?

    - The program appears to operating directly opposite from how it was supposed to

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    Exercise designed by Jimmy Lee Lard

    work - transferring assets out of poor communities while the wealthiest get the bulkof TIF dollars for improvements and projects.

    - There is no evaluation and no accountability for seeing that promises made tosecure TIF subsidies have actually been delivered - no job creation and no othermeasure of economic impact. In fact, there are studies that say that cities that useTIFs fare WORSE than cities that do NOT use them. Show us the proof they work.

    2. Things that make TIFs sketchy:- no evidence that they improve economic conditions over simply spending taxrevenues on local services

    - TIFs reenforce fiefdoms of aldermen at expense of coherent economic plan for all ofChicago

    - money for one-off TIFs could be spend on business incentives, regulatory reform,regulatory enforcement, and improving business services from city to drive

    development for all, not the chose few who work the TIF process

    3. First one must question: Why is there a Task Force being formed? I do not have aDegree in Finance. I am not an Elected Official. I am a City Employee. And let mestate for the record, I believe "Tax Increment Financing"...TIF's, are and economicforce that, when used properly, do work. Its proved to be an economic recovery toolacross the country. That said, ABUSED, they lead to budget deficits, like the one the

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    Exercise designed by Jimmy Lee Lard

    City of Chicago has been facing now since 2006. The 161 TIF Districts( now reduced)have generated revenues of $500 million dollars annually.{ David ORR's websitebreak down, visit the website, very informantive} As stated earlier I am not a Finance

    Major, but I do know how to add, and 1+1=2.

    TIF revenues, that is monies generated from(diverted) from Cook County Propertytaxes to TIF districts ultimately decrease the amount of money specifically allocatedfor each taxing body..ie; Schools,Parks,Public safety,etc....

    Heres a very simple example:

    I own a property for 10 years, my property taxes for those years average $2000 ayear, a break down of how those taxes are distributed are on the tax bill( this breakdown includes Pension Payments). So that $2000 I pay a year is based on a tax levyissued by each of the taxing bodies seeking a tax levy( schools,parks, publicsafety...etc). In the 11th year the City creates a TIF district in my neighborhood, andlets say for this example my Property taxes increase to $3000 a year, but they reallydon't. Yes I physically pay the $3000 but $3000 DOES NOT go to the taxing bodiesonly $2000 does. You see $1000 gets generated(diverted) to the TIF area. Thatswhere things get screwy...and because of State Law it happens for 23 years. So now

    my newly found TIF area becomes gentirfied, new buildings, which house newrestaurants, which creates new taxes and more buildings and more Property taxrevenues and so on and so on and so.......Now in then 16th year of owning myproperty, my property taxes have escalated to $15000 a year and my 12 NEWneighbors in their brand new 12 condo building in old the vacant lot that used to benext door also have $15000 property tax bills. Well this is where it gets VERY VERYCLEAR, the 13 of us just generated $193,000 dollars for our TIF distirct. My $13,000

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    Exercise designed by Jimmy Lee Lard

    ($15000-$2000 original taxes before TIF's froze them) and ALL 12 of my neighborsNEW $15,000 property Taxes. 13 properties create $2000 for schools, parks, publicsafety etc, and $193,000 for a TIF District....AND THIS HAPPENS FOR 17 more years

    and this is just 2 buildings. There's 150+ TIF areas in Chicago!!!!

    $193000 not going to Schools, Parks, Public Safety, all equal one big $1.4 billionDollar Shortfall($700 million for general operating budget and $700 million forSchools) and thats Just for 2012!!!!!!!

    My answer to the question you posed " If anything, what do you Not like about TIF's?"The Steal hard working peoples money!!!!!!Drop your "silly" TIF Task Force, pick up a Copy of Congressman Mike Quigley's TIFreport or Call Ben Jovarsky at the Chicago Reader. Then, get rid of them all and startover!!! Use TIF's as the tool they were designed for...... Blighted areas.

    If you have any questions I can be reached for more in depth conversation at312.813.3147...I didnt even get started about the Pension Problems TIF's created!!!

    John McGILL

    4. No accountability for where/how the money is spent.As a resident of the Near North TIF, I am incredibly disturbed to see $10,000,000(basically one full year of the area's tax revenue) going to build the new, state-of-the-art Jesse White community center. I would imagine a perfectly sufficient community

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    Exercise designed by Jimmy Lee Lard

    center could be built for FAR LESS than $10 million.....?!?!?!

    This, while the most basic needs in this area are still NOT being funded.....(ie:

    damaged roads in need of repair and resurfacing, general safety of existing residents,cleaning up negative businesses, vacant lots, attracting positive businesses to thearea, etc). If the point of TIFs is to improve infrastructure and fund basicimprovements in blighted areas, why are these BASIC improvements being ignored?Spending TIF $$ on an outrageously expensive community center is quite ironic in anarea where tax-payers worry about their safety and drive on damaged roads andHOPE that one day a positive business will actually want to move into the area.

    If money isn't spent on these basic needs very soon, myself and the other taxpayerswho support this neighborhood will be gone. Bye-bye tax revenue.

    5. One problem is that TIF districts are around for too long. 23 years for all of them. Theduration of the district should be related to the projects anticipated in them. Planningand development takes time but 23 years is excessive in most cases. For some, 5 or10 years should be enough to address some key issues, jump start things, and then

    let the natural market take over. In some rare cases perhaps 15 years would beneeded, but 23? Not needed.

    Look at the Near West TIF, it's done it's job. When it's been a success, ie achievedgoals stated in the TIF plan, it should then be judged done and dissolved, then thecounty and city could properly reap the benefits of its success by having thatincreased increment go back to the taxing districts as it was intended to do. This

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    Exercise designed by Jimmy Lee Lard

    small change to all the TIF districts would probably solve a lot of the budget issues.

    - a Planner who has worked on TIF projects.

    6. Your Comment/Response:_______________________________________________________________________________________

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    Exercise designed by Jimmy Lee Lard