CLICK HERE TO GET THE DATA
March 1, 2023
The CivicLab today releases the results of its Illumination of all the Tax Increment Financing Districts of Illinois for 2020. This work was conducted by the team at the TIF Illumination Project. Listen to coverage on WGN Radio from March 18.
Tax Increment Financing Districts are special entities created by a municipality in the name of “economc development” that captures and sequesters property tax dollars in secretive accounts controlled by local mayors. TIFs remove property taxes from the proper public flow or distribution to units of local government who rely on property taxes for operation.These public dollars are then doled out in an opaque and unaccountable manner to clouted developers and special projects with little or no oversight, evaluation, or possibility of redress. For basics about how TIFs work, check out these short videos.
Founder of the TIF Illumination Project, Tom Tresser, said “We have been invited to present at over 188 public meetings and we are working with neighbors in 17 cities on economic justice projects centered on TIF projects being bullied through the local government. The grant from MuckRock has allowed us, for the first time, to closely examine ALL 1,453 TIFs across 534 Illinois municipalities.”
Here are the major results of the research:
Please complete this brief form to access the spreadsheet with the state TIF data.
This sheet also includes:
This research has raised a number of critical questions about the people’s money is being used and possibly abused across the state.
Click here to access a Google Shared Folder will all the reviewed TIF reports (2020) by county.
This work was funded by the MuckRock Foundation (https://www.muckrock.com) with a grant of $10,000 from its Gateway Grant program. MuckRock is a non-profit collaborative news site that offers tools to keep our government transparent and accountable. They operate DocumentCloud (https://www.documentcloud.org) where hundreds of thousands of public records are stored and available for inspection and use. MuckRock co-founder and CEO Michael Morisy applauded the project, “When we launched the Gateway Grants program, we were looking for projects with important document collections that were hidden or hard to get out into the public, and the maze of TIF filings — from obscure and shifting websites to hidden in literal filing cabinets — perfectly fit the bill. The CivicLab team tapped and energized a group of Illuminators to understand the impact that these agreements on their communities, and it’s an amazing example not only of the power of public information, but what it means to truly put that into the hands of the public. We’re incredibly excited and proud of what CivicLab and the Illuminators have already done, and we are excited about the future potential for this work in Illinois and beyond.”
CivicLab CEO Jonathan Peck said, “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.” Read Jonathan’s complete message.
The CivicLab engaged three young organizers to undertake the bulk of the research: Leslie Cortez, Estef Figueroa, and Sebastian Nalls. Click here to read their reflections on this work and watch a brief video of their accounts.
The CivicLab is a Chicago based, Black-led nonprofit “do tank” for civic engagement, government accountability, and social justice. We have been exposing the harms of TIFs since 2013 via our TIF Illumination Project (www.tifreports.com).
Download the press release on this report:
Download the grant award press release:
Our work is funded in part by Illinois Humanities with support from the MuckRock Foundation, the Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation and from Leonard C. Goodman and from many small donors. Thank you!