Are You In A TIF?
This is a project of The CivicLab
The Editorial Team
TIF Report Team
Tom Tresser – Editor-in-Chief
Tom has been an educator, activist and champion of distributed democracy (the practice of using new media tools and old-fashioned organizing to engage citizens in investigating their government, reporting on it, challenging it and changing it) for over 20 years. Tom has started or led ten nonprofit enterprises in the arts, community development and civic engagement. In 1994 Tom organized “42nd Ward Citizens for Chicago’s Future,” a grassroots effort that was part of a successful regional coalition to stop the expansion of casino gambling into Chicago. He was the founder of the Community Arts Program at Peoples Housing that combined cultural programming with training and micro-enterprise. He has been fighting privatization and leading efforts to inform citizens about the true state of local government finance, corruption and service quality. He was a co-founder of Protect Our Parks, which litigated successfully to stop the Latin School from privatizing part of Lincoln Park in 2007, He was a co-leader of No Games Chicago, which was an all-volunteer citizen’s effort that worked to defeat the bid for the 2016 Olympics. He has established TresserLabs as a social venture enterprise to build and distribute tools for civic engagement, grassroots economic development and breakthrough insight.
Rebecca Reynolds – Organizing Director
Patrick Boylan – Reporter
Patrick is the publisher of an online news magazine, The Welles Park Bulldog, which covers the Ravenswood, North Center and Lincoln Square communities. Patrick has written for the Chicago Tribune and The Times of Northwest Indiana and was a blogger for The ChiTown Daily News. Patrick has covered local politics, TIFs and other hyper-local issues extensively. Here is one example of his TIF reporting – “TIFs drain .59 of every commercial property tax dollar in Ravenswood.”Â
Tim Costin – Reporter
Tim writes about governmental abuses, particularly by local government in Schaumburg.  His primary forum is www.schaumburgfreedom.com The Schaumburg Freedom Coalition was started by his son, Brian Costin, in 2008. He says “Blogging is not my profession. I originally was just going to help my son build his website for the Schaumburg Freedom Coalition. But after experiencing firsthand the arrogance and waste at the Village of Schaumburg, I began to write my own blogs in support of my Son and the taxpayers of Schaumburg. I did some political writing years ago. In my 20s, long before blogs, I led a successful fight to repeal Home Rule in Lombard, IL where I wrote flyers, papers, and LTEs in support of the repeal. I became familiar with Home Rule, municipal law, and election law. I literally had to go to federal court to get the referendum on the ballot. I do not write because I enjoy politics. I’d rather pick weeds in my garden than pick fights with political opponents. I do it because it is important that citizens stay informed and participate in keeping government in check. What matters to me is liberty. What scares me is out of control government and how little the public pays attention to it, especially at the local level.  Someone needs to do it, especially with the decline of the newspaper business. I am happy that I have enough modest skill in writing, organization, research, and computer skills to create informative and convincing blogs.” Tim is a retired software developer for Sears, IBM and AT&T with 29 years of experience.
His TIF related work includes blogs on the Star Line TIF, blogs on the Career Education 7B commercial tax break scam, and is currently researching articles on 6B industrial tax breaks in Schaumburg. Here is an excellent piece, “TIF – The Hidden Tax”
Jim Craner – Programmer, Mapmaker
Jim is a co-founder of Maptogether.org. The MapTogether project provides free map-related training and tools for community and nonprofit groups around the world. Their services software development, data sets, online mapping services, documentation, and training resources. In addition, their geographers provide free in-person “community mapping clinics” in cities across the United States and Canada. MapTogether provides consultation, training and  full-scale GIS application development and hosting. Jim spent four years as co-founder and managing director of the Chicago Technology Cooperative.
Marcie Hill – Reporter
Marcie Hill is an entrepreneur, professional blogger and published journalist. She is the Founder and President of The Write Design Company (TWDC).  She owns and manages three blogs: The Write Design Company (www.thewritedesignco.com/blog ; Shorty: Your Chicago South Side Resource (www.goshorty.net); and Marcie Writes (http://marciewrites.worpdress.com).
Shorty, her community site, shares resources and information on culture, education, employment, health and youth programs and activities on the South Side of Chicago. She is most familiar with the Auburn Gresham and Englewood Communities.  Some of her most recent work includes: (1) “Reinvesting in our community” -http://marciewrites.wordpress.com/2010/08/28/reinvesting-in-our-community-the-chicago-independent-bulletin-newspaper , (2) “When Does the Community Start Caring” – http://www.goshorty.net/shorty-wonders-when-does-the-community-start-caring and (3) “The Entire South Side is NOT the Englewood Community” – http://www.goshorty.net/the-entire-south-side-is-not-the-englewood-community
Jason Liechty – Reporter, Researcher
As Director of Policy for Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley, Jason Liechty initiated a policy focus on tax increment financing which garnered significant local and national attention, including newspaper, radio, TV, and web coverage; co-authored “A Tale of Two Cities,” a major research report on TIFs; and presented a case study to a national TIF symposium at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Mass. He also wrote three other research papers, one of which the Chicago Tribune praised as “without parallel in Illinois politics.” Liechty, who has also worked as a planning consultant and executive director of the Edgewater Community Council, is currently the office manager at Chicago’s first boutique distillery. He graduated summa cum laude from American University in Washington, DC, won a prestigious Fulbright Fellowship for study in Bonn, Germany, and earned a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Arthur Lyons – Reporter, Researcher
Arthur Lyons, Ph.D., is founding director of the Center for Economic Policy Analysis (CEPA). CEPA is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization whose reports provide the essential analysis that policy makers, community leaders, and journalists need to perform their roles effectively in the processes of democratic government. CEPA has been called on by groups as far away as Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and several states in between. Lyons has written extensively about community development, taxation, and other matters, including a two-volume report on tax increment financing (TIF) in the Chicago area (overall editor), a technical guide for assessors on how to value government-assisted housing, and evaluations of the effectiveness of property tax incentives for business growth and of various alternative methods for making property tax assessments more fair.
His previous experience includes serving in the highest non-elected position at the Cook County Board of Property Tax Assessment Review, where he provided in-service training to other Board staff about the principles of assessment and the criteria for evaluating assessment appeals; he was routinely assigned the most difficult and complex cases. Lyons has also brought his experience into the classrooms of Chicago-area universities, where he co-directed the Master of Arts in Community Development program at North Park University and taught and developed courses for the Master of Urban Planning and Policy program at the University of Illinois in Chicago. He has been asked to serve on boards and provide advice by elected public officials, including a Governor of Illinois, two Cook County Assessors, a Mayor of Chicago, and the City Council of Philadelphia.
Adam Verwymeren – Reporter, Graphic Designer
As a grad student at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, Adam Verwymeren developed a keen interest in tax increment financing. He has created short humorous Flash animations to explain TIFs. Here is one. He currently works as a freelance journalist and web designer. Web site = http://averwymeren.com. He has also programmed TIF district boundaries into Google Earth at http://tinyurl.com/TIF-maps.