The document discusses Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts in Chicago and Cook County. It explains that TIFs divert property tax revenue above a base level for up to 23 years to subsidize development projects. In 2011, TIFs diverted $454 million in Chicago and $275 million in suburban Cook County, totaling $729 million. The city had $1.7 billion in unspent TIF funds at the end of 2011. The presentation provides data on TIFs in different wards, including lifetime tax revenue extracted and remaining funds.

1. July 1, 2013
Tom Tresser

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www.civiclab.us

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4. In the evening – open enrollment workshops on all things civic...
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“TIF 101”
“Vegan Cooking”

5. Watch the 2 ½ minute promo @ http://tinyurl.com/TIF-101-promo-YT
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What are TIFs?

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What are TIFs?
• Created by municipality (state
statute)
• Boundaries cross political and
community boundaries
• Designed to subsidize some
business project in “blighted” or
under-served area
• Captures “incremental” property
taxes ABOVE base when district
was created
• Lasts 23 years

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What are TIFs?
Under state law, areas proposed for TIF designation
must possess numerous blighting factors to be
eligible:
• Age
• Obsolescence
• Code violations
• Excessive vacancies
• Overcrowding of facilities

9. Better Government Association 9

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How Do TIFs Work?
When the TIF is created,
the city tallies up all the
property taxes
generated by district in
that year (called the
"base" amount). After
that, all property tax
increases above the
base (the "increment")
are channeled to the TIF
district.
The property taxes
collected from
properties inside the
district BEFORE the
district was created
that go to units of
government stays
FLAT for the life of the
TIF (23 years).

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Where are TIFs?
• All over Chicago and Cook
County = 443 TIFs in 2011
• 163 in city of Chicago
{9 terminated in 2013}
•Additional 280 in suburban
Cook County

14. Where are TIFs?
TIF 101 14

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Where are TIFs?
Source: Cook County Clerk

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How Much Revenue Do TIFs Collect?
Source: Cook County Clerk

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How Much Revenue Do TIFs Collect?
2011 TOTAL TIF REVENUE FOR COOK COUNTY
City of Chicago
TIFs diverted $454 MILLION
Suburban Cook County where
83 municipalities have TIFs
TIFs diverted $275 MILLION
TOTAL FOR 2011 = $729 MILLION

18. How Much Revenue Do TIFs Collect?
TIFs extracted $454 million in 2011.
That # is 53% of the TOTAL amount
of property taxes that went to the city
for its operations!
TIF 101 18

19. • We are told that TIFs have NO impact on our property taxes.
• This bill is from a property inside the Englewood TIF.
• It shows “0.00” impact on this person’s bill. Nothing.

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The civics books
say our property
taxes are distributed
like this…
But in 2011 our
property taxes in
Chicago were
REALLY distributed
like this…

21. How Much Revenue Do TIFs Collect?
Ouch!
$4.5 BILLION
DIVERTED
1986 -- 2011
TIF 101 21

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How Much Revenue Do TIFs Collect?

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Click here to open
the 163 PDF
annual reports.
One by one.

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THE CITY HAD
$1.7 BILLION IN
UNSPENT TIF FUNDS
AT THE END OF 2011!

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What are TIFs?

29. You can get this full presentation online at the TIF Data Store at
http://tinyurl.com/TIF-Data-Store. The full presentation contains this
data:
- how many TIFs in the ward
- estimation of TIF property tax extraction from TIFs in the ward for
latest year
- if a TIF is 100% or close to 100% in ward, lifetime property tax
extraction
- how much money left in those TIF accounts FROM the ward
- what projects funded by TIFs in the ward
- examples from the TIF Hall of Shame
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Find out more - info@civiclab.us.

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www.civiclab.us
www.tifreports.com