The TIFs of the 17th Ward

February 11, 2015Tom Tresser

312-804-3230 – tom@civiclab.us

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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?

• FUELED BY OUR PROPERTY TAXES

• ONLY FOR BUILDING THINGS (SMALL

EXCEPTION = TIF Works job training)

• TIF $ HANDCUFFED TO WHERE

COLLECTED (Except where they are moved or ported)

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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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Money From TIFs Taken From?

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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

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TIFs Used to support commercial projects in these “Blighted” Areas

40 S. Halsted

Apple Store

10Better Government Association

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Mr. TIF

To sum up:

TIFs = property taxes

Increment $ collected by TIF

Run by city

Lasts 23 years

Blight & “But for” conditions

Hard to track

BIG deal in Chicago & Illinois

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What are TIFs doing to us?

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That’s all we’re going to show you for free. Sorry, but we’ve

got some serious monthly expenses to meet at the

CivicLab – so if you’d like to get the full presentation,

please visit our TIF Data Store at

http://www.tifreports.com/store.

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