Illinois Illumination

First Ever All Illinois TIF Illumination!

CivicLab teams with the Muckrock Foundation!

Cicero Independiente uses this data for local expose of rogue TIF in Cicero!

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:

  • All data is for the 2020 calendar year and taken from Chicago’s 2020 TIF Annual Reports and the Illinois Comptroller’s Data Warehouse
  • Number of TIF Districts reviewed = 1,453
  • Number of municipalities with TIFs = 534
  • Number of municipalities with 5 or more TIFs = 70 (616 total, or 42% of all Illinois TIFs)
  • Number of counties with TIFs = 95 (out of 102 counties in Illinois)
  • Total amount of property tax $ removed by these TIFs = $1,515,022,031
  • Total amount spent by these TIFs = $1,177,485,105
  • Total amount of that expense that went to debt financing = $342,682,833 (29%)
  • Total dollars moved or distributed from these TIFs = $578,930,223 (38%)
  • Total property tax dollars sitting in TIF accounts across Illinois at the end of 2020 = $2,259,254,188
  • Total number missing TIF reports = 72 (32 municipalities, 18 counties)
  • Total amount of property taxes taken by all Illinois TIFs from 1980 through 2020 = $25 billion

Please complete this brief form to access the spreadsheet with the state TIF data.

This sheet also includes:

  • Details on the moving of TIF money between TIFs, and the dstribution of funds from TIFs to municipal sources
  • Cumulative totals for ALL TIFs analyzed here (that is, how much property tax has each TIF removed from circulation in its lifetime, up to and includingm 2020)
  • Totals for administrative expenses charged to the TIF by the municipality
  • List of TIFs sorted by (1) 2020 property tax extraction, (2) 2020 expenditure, (3) 2020 Fund balance
  • List of all municipalities out of compliance (that is, localities operating TIFs but failing to file required annual reports for 2020)

This research has raised a number of critical questions about the people’s money is being used and possibly abused across the state.

  • The data is hard to find and aggregate and, as far as we know, the CivicLab is the only organization in America regularly and systematically aggregating TIF data and reviewing it through a racial and social justice lens.
  • Our numbers are preliminary in that we do not have the annual reports from 32 municipalities operating 72 TIFs. This includes the notoriously corrupt Cicero, which operates five TIF districts, one of which, the Cicero TIF, removed $16,931,283 in 2020 and a staggering $278,871,584 since 1987 (Cook County Clerk)! We can get some totals from sources other than the annual reports for the delinquent cities in Cook County but have NOT included them in this report as we want all the data to come from the annual reports that are supposed to filed with the Illinois Comptroller.
  • Why are these municipalities allowed to operate Tax Increment Finacing Districts in complete secrecy? The CivicLab believes those TIFs should be immediately frozen by the state and NOT allowed to capture or distribute public funds until a public, thorough, and independent audit is conducted on those TIFs. Only if they are found to operating properly and with no conflict of interest or scandal, should they permitted to resume operation.
  • These numbers only show data for TIFs that are currently active. We would need another and more detailed investigation to reveal the amount of TIF dollars removed from EXPIRED or CANCELLED TIFs from across the state. For example, in 2020 Chicago had 136 active TIFs but there were another 48 that HAD been active. Those cancelled TIFs had extracted $2,269,123,542. In order to fully under stand what TIFs have done to Chicago and Illinois, we must include the impacts of these cancelled TIFs.
  • Since our public schools are SUPPOSED to receive between 50 cents and 60 cents of every property tax dollar collected, we must conclude that TIFs bleed funds from our public education system (as well as from the other units of local government that rely on property taxes for operations. That is why you see school districts fighting TIFs and even suing their own local municipality to unwind or stop TIF deals. See the news from Arlington Heights where the Chicago Bears are seeking potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in public subsidies.
  • A recent presentation from the Cook County Assessor’s Office demonstrated how the TIFs of Cook County caused a 15% overall rise in property taxes here!
The Cook County Assessor’s data ran the numbers – looking a specific property in Pilsen and found that all the TIFs in Cook County produced a 15% increase over time – that is, local units of goverment nneded to RAISE rates to make up for revenue lost to TIFs.
  • Which raises the issue of how have TIFs inflated property tax rates and collections across the entire state of Illinois?
  • Our research on TIFs in Chicago revealed frequent instances of corruption, conflict of interest, and dubious projects being given public funds. The most notable instance is the federal indictment of long time Alderman Ed Burke for corruption and larceny. Here is an image from the Chicago Sun-Times that tells the sorid story of TIFs:
“I” = businessman seeking to bribe. “His favor” = Alderman Burke’s blessing
  • We can only speculate about how rampant this “pay to play” corruption is across the 1,454 municipalities across the state. How bad might it be in areas with little or no local civic reporting? See the item above about Cicero. Do we really want to trust the scandal-plaqued town government there with hundreds of mllions of public dollars that are completely unaccounted for and are off the books and unavailable for any review whatsoever?
  • TIFs are only part of a larger problem with public funds going to private businesses. Illinois has also given out billions of dollars in subsidies to private businesses in the form of tax breaks or tax payment avoidance. Good Jobs First has been tracking corporate welfare programs for year and
    their Subsidy Tracker for Illinois returns 58 pages of tax credit/rebate gifts worth billions of dollars – taxes these companies DID NOT pay. Might it be time to CANCEL all gifts of cash and foregone revenue to private companies? Especially so for a place like Illinois, which had a long and sad history of corruption at the highest levels of office here.
  • After being in the field in Chicago for ten years and after working with activists and champions of public service and grassroots democracy in over 20 cities across the USA, the CivicLab calls for the ABOLITION of TIFs altogether. We assert that TIFs are corrupting and racist and can not be reformed. Our arguments are online at www.endtifsnow.org. We recognize that we may be the only civic organization in America that holds this position and has made the case for it.

Click here to access a Google Shared Folder will all the reviewed TIF reports (2020) by county.

Download TIF Annual Reports for 2020 by county – PDF format

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.

All accomplished organizers and community activists!

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:

Illinois-TIF-Illumination-PR-2-28-23Download

Download the grant award press release:

CL-MR-press-release-1-10-23Download

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!

Copyright 2020 The CivicLab (r)