Category: News

Time To Illuminate The 49th Ward

49th Ward_flier-web It’s going to be a TIF-APALOOZA in the 49th Ward on Monday, July 1st! Join us at 7pm at Loyola Park when we expose the TIFs in the north Rogers Park community. Details & RSVP via Facebook at http://tinyurl.com/TIF-Present-7-1.

This is going to be an extra-special Illumination because we’ll be joined by the Chicago Reader’s amazing political reporting team of Mick Dumke and Ben Joravsky. They’ve reported extensively on TIFs and related issues here for years. Mick is a long-time resident of the 49th ward.

This will the TIF Illumination Project’s last community Illumination for a while. We are re-grouping and evaluating the work done over the past four months. We’ve Illuminated 89 TIFs in 12 wards before some 1,200 people. Not bad for an all volunteer effort!

Mick+Ben

 

Time For 50th Ward Illumination!

50th_Ward_flierWe’re heading north on June 11 to Illuminate the four TIFs in the 50th ward. Details and RSVP via Facebook @ http://tinyurl.com/TIF-Forum-June-11. Download a flier.

A special TIF treat – Chicago Reader political reporter Ben Joravsky will be a featured speaker. He got us started in the TIF biz! CivicLab co-founder Tom Tresser produced a meeting on TIFs in Lincoln Park back in 2008 where Ben broke it all down. No, Ben won’t be appearing with former Mayor Daley. It’s just a great picture!

Ben+Mayor

11th and 12th Wards Illuminated!

It was a packed house at the McKinley Park Library for the 11th and 12th Ward Illumination. The TIF Illumination Project lit up the 16 TIFs inside those two wards. See the presentation and listen to the audio (59 minutes). If you find this work valuable, please make a non-deductible investment via WePay. Who else is telling you how TIFs are impacting Chicago on a ward-by-ward basis? Read coverage from Progress Illinois.

4th Ward TIFs To Be Illuminated!

4th_Ward-flier-small It’s time to shed some light on the 11 TIFs inside the 4th Ward. Join us on Monday, May 13 at 6pm at Room 43 to learn:

– How much property tax is extracted from each TIF inside the ward

– How much money FROM the ward was left in the TIFs at the end of 2011

– What projects inside the ward got funded

You can get the details and RSVP here: http://tinyurl.com/TIF-Forum-May-13.

Englewood Neighborhood TIF To Be Illuminated May 4

Englewood_flier-small Join us in Englewood on Saturday, May 4 at 10am at the Kelly Library when we Illuminate just one TIF. We will be exposing the Englewood Neighborhood TIF that morning. Details and RSVP via Facebook @ http://tinyurl.com/TIF-Forum-May-4.

To get you in the mood to Illuminate, take this quick multiple choice question.

If you live inside the Englewood Neighborhood TIF, you would see that it is shown on your property tax bill as having “0” impact – that is no property taxes taken. However, the TRUE percentage of your property taxes gobbled up by that TIF is:
(a) 16%
(b) 27%
(c) 48%
(d) 68%

We’ll reveal the answer, and many more amazing facts about TIFs, on May 4!