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January 11, 2025 statement by Councilman John Laesch:
As a former East Aurora School Board Member, I knew that TIF’s siphoned tax dollars out of our school district’s budget. In 2023 I was elected to the office of Alderman-at-Large by running against a massive $58 Million TIF for Aurora’s Hollywood Casino. It was a raw deal for a company that makes billions of dollars each and every year in gross profits.
When the casino TIF made it to the city council agenda I knew that I needed help so I reached out to Tom Tresser with the TIF Illumination Project. Tom worked quickly and efficiently to analyze all of the TIF districts in Kane County and Aurora. The numbers were eye-opening! Tom helped coordinate a public educational event and we worked on inviting people to attend. The event was a huge success. There is a need for more people to understand how TIF Districts are nothing more than corporate welfare, or a massive tax break for the rich. America needs more TIF education.
In 2025 I am running to be the next Mayor of Aurora on a platform of supporting essential services and infrastructure projects like removing our lead water lines and replacing leaky water mains. These are things that benefit our community – things we want, not an agenda set by deep-pocketed developers. I will not be using TIFs and will use our lobbying power in Springfield to follow California’s lead on eliminating TIFs.
The town of Aurora was about to approve a $50 million TIF to subsidize the relocation of the Hollywood Aurora Casino! Alderman John Laesch and Working Families Aurora led the fight to stop this outrageous public subsidy for a multi-billion dollar gambling empire. Sadly, the village council voted 11-1 to give the billionaire casino operators $50 in TIF support.
Despite protest and many residents objecting, the Joint Review Board approved the Casino TIF on November 8, 2023. Only the Kane County Board representative voted no – which is a huge victory as that has never happened before.
The community groups opposing the TIF organized a public meeting on Saturday, November 4, 2023. About 50 people attended. Tom Tresser led off with an overview of TIFs and then made news by revealing, for the first time, the full extent of the TIFs of Kane County and Aurora. For more details: info@civiclab.us.
