The CivicLab’s TIF Illumination Project continues to unearth how public dollars and resources are being utilized to enrich the pockets of a cabal of politicians and developers who seemingly have the sole interest of lining their campaign war chests and their own pockets at the expense of taxpayers. The racist and corrupt Tax Incrementing Financing scheme continues to rob billions of dollars from communities across Illinois and diminishing much needed public resources at a time when we need these resources the most. A significant portion of this steal of public funds derives from Black and Brown communities. Our so called “progressive” and “down for the people” elected and community leadership across political parties – from the Governor’s House to City and Township Halls across this great state of ours continue to support this racist and corrupt practice. To even have a chance at tackling and addressing our most salient issues that our families and communities face we need to have an honest conversation about how TIFs work and how they continue to devastate our public services. We need to hold those responsible for their actions.
Without robust, affordable, fully funded, high quality and responsive public services we will continue to fall way short of our civic and community needs. Housing, Immigration, Transportation, Jobs, Education, Public Safety are domains where we continue to create so called solutions that truly and epically fail to reach the levels that we want or hope for, causing even more disappointment and disillusionment among our citizens. A significant portion of the reason behind these epic failures is that they are woefully underfunded and under resourced. Why is this happening over and over again? Because billions of public dollars are being stolen and diverted away from our public services and being placed into the pockets of corporations and extremely rich families through the racist and corrupt Tax Increment Financing Program.
We also continue to hear a mantra of scarcity and that our municipalities are broke. We are told over and over again that our governments don’t have the funds and resources they need to address our most challenging issues. At the same time,
the very people we elect are colluding with the wealthy in securing a level of generational wealth for their communities through the execution of this racist and corrupt TIF Scheme. AND while our Black families and communities are facing a ticking time bomb of their median wealth falling to zero by 2053 and Latino Americans by 2073! What will my two sons and their generation face when it’s time for them to leave the nest, go to college and then start their own? How will they be impacted by this massive re-distribution of public dollars? These are questions that myself and their mother ask every day as we do our best to prepare them for this impending situation.
We now know according to a recent article by James Lartey about a study conducted by Prosperity Now and the Institute for Public Studies, “Median wealth of black Americans will fall to zero by 2053 warns new report” that in the here and now white households own 86 times more wealth then Black households and 68 times more wealth than Latino households. This article notes that with the major shift in population in the United States to becoming a “Majority Minority by 2044”, we will become a nation where majority of households will not be able to enter the middle class.
The CivicLab estimates that Tax Increment Financing Districts remove over $40 billion in property taxes across the United States (49 states) every year. Most of these public dollars are diverted to underwrite and subsidize private developments owned by (mostly) White and powerful developers. This incredibly corrupt scheme exacerbates the deepening and widening of America’s community generational wealth gap.
Given the absolute necessity of all of our families and communities to rely on our public services and infrastructure, we must restore public budgets by ending this racist and corrupt TIF Scheme and work towards reimagining how we dwell together, and how we can build and sustain municipalities that work for everyone. We will not survive as a Union if the gap between White households and Black and Latino households continue to rise at alarming rates. America, divided like this against itself, will not endure over the long term.
The first ever comprehensive statewide TIF Illumination of Illinois conducted by a grassroots organization like the CivicLab begins the process of illuminating this devastating racist and corrupt tax incentive scheme at a level that can then be carried over to all other 48 states that are also actively in the business of fleecing taxpayers.
Please join the CivicLab in this epic fight for economic justice and racial equity! The future is here, and we need to get you into this battle for community generational wealth! Go to www.civiclab.us to get the details on our TIF Illumination Project, to sign up to receive more information, and to donate whatever you can to support this fight!
With blessings and gratitudes,
Jonathan Thanh Danh Peck
President CEO of the CivicLab, Inc.
