There are 164 TIF districts in the city of Chicago and in 2010 they siphoned an astounding $706 MILLION in property taxes away from the units of government that rely on them for operation. Not bad for a recession – this is an all-time high, an increase of 36% over 2009′s total.

Didn’t we read about a $700 million hole in the city’s budget? The city is laying off policemen, fire fighters, and teachers.
So here’s the money you need, Mr. Mayor, to close the gap and preserve public services. A copy of our findings is available for download for free here.

A city panel Tuesday approved a $7-million public subsidy to help finance a Greektown development that will include a new Mariano’s Fresh Market store. The Chicago Community Development Commission approved a tax-increment financing grant of about 16.73% of the estimated $41.8 million cost of the retail project, which is proposed for a site near the southwest corner of Halsted and Monroe Streets, just west of the Kennedy Expressway. The 95,125-square-foot project would be anchored by Mariano’s, which is a new line of grocery stores by Milwaukee-based Roundy’s Supermarkets Inc. Mariano’s would take 75,595 square feet of space on the second level of the three-story structure.

In the lead story on the $110 million tax breaks offered to Motorola, the Tribune reports that Motorola can cut it workforce IN HALF and still get our money. How did they know this – they filed Freedom of Information Act requests to get the details. This information should be well known and debated in advance of any taxpayer subsidies for private business. Good luck getting that information on proposed TIF projects.

Then – right below that story is a report on how poor Illinois ethics disclosure laws and reporting systems are. The forms “are so worthless” said David Morrison of The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.

So – there you have it. We can’t find out what conflicts of interests ensnare our elected officials. We can’t find out what tax give-aways they are showering on big business. We need Citizen Journalists to help us track and reveal these conflicts of interest and shine a spotlight on sweetheart deals and transfer of public assets into private hands.

Learnapalooza

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. But what – exactly – is community organizing?  This is an introduction to this calling and cause. “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will” said Frederick Douglass.

The presenter is Tom Tresser, one of the organizers of No Games Chicago. There will be two 45 minute sessions at the Wicker Park Arts Center, 2219 W. North Avenue. Register for the 12:30pm session here and for the 1:45pm session here.

The preview details the pretax U.S. profits, federal taxes paid and effective tax rates of (in alphabetical order): American Electric Power, Boeing, Dupont, Exxon Mobil, FedEx, General Electric, Honeywell International, IBM, United Technologies, Verizon Communications, Wells Fargo and Yahoo. CTJ’s full corporate report is scheduled for release this summer.

From 2008 through 2010, these 12 companies reported $171 billion in pretax U.S. profits. But as a group, their federal income taxes were negative: –$2.5 billion. Download the report

Ms. Brown, I have received your letter and would like to take you up on your offer of making recommendations to the Panel:

I therefore suggest:

(1) For TIFs ALREADY in existence:

- Full disclosure of all expenditures for each TIF, by year

- Data base for all TIF fund recipients so we can, in one place, see who has received how much for what

- Show TIF revenues by year by WARD (this is currently unavailable)

- Online database for all documents pertaining to TIFs – the study that was used to create it, the internal planning review, the PowerPoint presentation show to the CDC, all financial reports relating to that TIF

-  independent review of existing TIFs – what are they doing? Especially after project that spawned TIF is completed

- mechanism to sunset TIFs that are no longer serving the public interest or which have been shown to be inactive, dysfunctional or corrupt.

(2) For TIFs proposed or to be created:

- a binding referendum of the precincts covered by a TIF BEFORE new TIF created – do the property

owners want it?

- independent study by academic center on economic reasons for the TIF – NOT by the consulting firm that makes millions from the TIF cottage industry

- all discussions of TIFs by city officials or electeds must be recorded and web cast and all transcripts should be put online in searchable form At present these transcripts are the PRIVATE PROPERTY of a commercial secretarial service – this is intolerable.

(3) All property tax bills for property in TIF districts should  disclose the amount of property tax from that property that has been captured by the relevant district or districts.

(4) In the interest of avoiding conflicts of interest, there should be a central database that is graphic, easy to manipulate and searchable that shows any connections between developers, aldermen, city officials and commissioners who vote on TIF approvals. The public is rightfully skeptical that the driving motivation behind the creation of TIFs is clout and self-interest, not sound public policy.

I work with and talk to a wide variety of nonprofits, community organizations and small business advocacy groups and there is some concern that this panel is weak in voices that speak for the taxpayer. I hope you will find a way to remedy this.

Tom Tresser
CivicLab

When I heard of this panel, I was excited that now – at last – we can get to the bottom of the program that, last time we looked, had over $1 billion in unspent TIF funds sitting in bank accounts somewhere in Chicago.

Last week I asked Ms. Brown if I could be appointed to this panel. This is what I said:

Ms. Brown -

I would like to place my credentials before you for a seat on the newly formed TIF Review Panel that you are leading. I’ve attached my resume but I can say, in summary, that I am a taxpayer advocate and champion of reform, government transparency and civic engagement. Over the past few years I have been involved in a number of good government efforts and grassroots organizing campaigns – focusing on protecting The Commons. I am tremendously skeptical about TIFs and how they have been used. I believe your firm does TIF-related work and so I think your panel needs at least one person who is not in government or big business and who can represent the Chicago taxpayer. I would like to be one such person. Would you be willing to meet to discuss this?

Thank you!
Tom Tresser

Today I heard from Ms. Brown. This is what she wrote, in part:

“Thank you for your interest in the TIF Review Panel. As you know, Mayor Emanuel is committed to
evaluating and reforming the City’s TIF program. As part of this evaluation, he appointed the panel of
economic development professionals, financial experts and community leaders who, over a 90-day
period, will evaluate every aspect of the City’s TIF program and develop recommendations for reform.
These recommendations will be incorporated into the 2012 budget.

Mayor Emanuel appointed the panel from a cross section of the community. Despite your belief that my
background as an investment banker may inhibit this, I believe strongly that we must complete a
thorough and objective review to address the following:

Establishment of City TIF Policy.
Evaluation of TIF Performance.
Establishing Transparency in TIF Reporting.
Maintaining Fiscal Responsibility.

As far as I know, the Mayor has no plans to expand the existing panel. However, there will be
opportunity for the panel to receive public input before we complete our work. Right now, the City’s
website includes a suggestion box for public comments. The panel will review all of these comments as
part of our deliberation process. I have attached two links:

1. The City’s TIF page which houses all the links to TIF data available online. There is a link to the
suggestion box on this page.
2. Direct link to the suggestion box”

Here’s the full letter, which also lists members of the panel. Download as a PDF.

I will follow the progress of this panel with great interest.