The sober analysts at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy issued a report in 2012 entitled “Rethinking Property Tax Incentives for Business.” They don’t waste any time cutting to the chase. “The use...

Calling all coders and web designers. help us conceptualize and build Apps For Activists at this MeetUp on Tuesday, January 15, 2013. Calling all technologists, coders and designers – let’s meet a few...

As reported in Crain’s Chicago Business, “A new study examining where tax increment financing (TIF) proceeds go for construction in the Chicago Public Schools finds selective enrollment, charter and magnet schools are favored...

Our first TIF Illumination for TIFs outside the city of Chicago is being conducted for the ten TIFs inside the Village of Franklin Park. Our research partner for this Illumination is Open Local...

Check out this TED talk by Clay Shirky on how peer-to-peer technology can open a new frontier of participatory democracy. It’s what the TIF Illumination Project and the CivicLab are all about! Tweet

The great folks at the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation are featuring our work on their blog. The TIF Illumination Project is in the running for a $10,000 Catalyst Award! You can...

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch comes a story of a economic development deal gone very bad. A city showers a private company with tens of millions of dollars from the taxpayers in hopes...

Is it the Return of the Blob? Is a spreading epidemic? Is the map to secret treasure? Could it be all three? It’s the map of Chicago’s 163 Tax Increment Finance Districts. The...

The great Ben Joravsky, who has forgotten more about TIFs than most will recall, has written about the CivicLab and our TIF Illumination Project. He keeps talking about Tom Tresser, but the No...

There are 1,220 TIFs in Illinois inside of 455 municipalities. In 2010 they extracted $1.12 BILLION in property taxes from taxpayers across the state. What do we know, collectively, about all this economic...