The annual reports f0r Chicago Tax increment Finance Districts are out.In order to find out how much they cost the taxpayers, one would have download all the PDF reports, open them up one by one and drop numbers into a spreadsheet. That’s what our intrepid volunteer researcher, Trevor Clarke did. The results are outrageous. There [...]
According to an excellent article in Austin Talks, Coca-Cola got $3.22 million to build a distribution facility in Austin and only 20 of the facility’s 325 employees are from Austin. Austin activist Dwayne Tuss is quoted as saying “property tax dollars are wrongly diverted from city services, such as fire and police protection, schools and [...]
Learnapalooza is a free learning extravaganza where over 100 classes and workshops will be offered in the Wicker Park area on Saturday, June 25. I’ll be offering two 45 minute sessions… Chicago is the home of modern community organizing. It’s happening here and all over the world – witness the uprisings in The Middle East. [...]
Citizens for Tax Justice has released a preview of its forthcoming major study of Fortune 500 companies and the taxes they paid — or failed to pay — over the 2008-10 period. The preview details the pretax U.S. profits, federal taxes paid and effective tax rates of (in alphabetical order): American Electric Power, Boeing, Dupont, [...]
TIF Report founder and Editor-in-Chief Tom Tresser wrote an article for The Lincoln Central Association that appears in their Spring 2011 edition of “THE LCA Watchdog.” This is especially relevant because the folks over at the Children’s Memorial Hospital along with outgoing Alderman Vi Daley are laying the groundwork for a TIF to benefit the [...]
Tax Increment Finance (TIF) is in the news. It should be. As esoteric as the subject might be, you should care about this program if you own property in Cook County. When a TIF district is created the property taxes generated by all the properties in the district are “frozen” and for the next 23 [...]
The TIF Report is seeking investors and collaborators. We think there is a need and a market for an ongoing, grassroots, incisive and hard-hitting reporting on how Tax Increment Finance districts work. We want to report on what happens to the hundreds of millions of property tax dollars that are diverted by the 420+ TIF [...]
