TIF Illumination Quadruple Play In January!

Quadruple playIt’s four TIF Illuminations in January!

Don’t miss out. Contact us if you want YOUR ward Illuminated!

Join our new crowdfunding campaign to produce “The TIF Hall of Shame.”

11th Ward Illuminated

It was another full house for a TIF town meeting, or Illumination, as we fondly call these community gatherings. We lit up the TIFs of the 11th ward.

11th ward full house-web About 60 people packed the community room at the First Trinity Lutheran Church on 31st Street. You can see the Twitter comments if you search for #11taxtricks. The event was partially sponsored by Friends of Maureen Sullivan, who is running for alderman. Read coverage in Progress Illinois and DNAinfo Chicago.

Here’s what one attendee, Ve Castillo, posted online: “Thank you Thomas Tresser (CivicLab) and Daniel Eugene Pugh-Barnett for the eye-opening experience regarding TIFs in the 11th Ward. Unbelievable and still in awe.”

You can see part of the presentation:

To download the entire deck, including the particulars of the 11th ward, visit the TIF Data Store.

To find out more about our TIF training, research and community meetings email us at info@civiclab.us.

27th Ward Illuminated (Again)

It was a star-studded 25th TIF Illumination Project town meeting on November 7, 2014 at VenueOne when we Illuminated the 12 TIFs of the 27th Ward.

Here is part of the presentation. The full version, including all the details of the TIF activity for the 27th Ward for 2013 (it’s staggering) is available for $2.50 at our TIF Data Store.

The meeting was hosted by Gabe Buekinga, candidate for Alderman of the 27th Ward. Joining us were former State Senator (and alderman of the 27th Ward) Ricky Hendon and 2nd Ward Alderman Bob Fioretti, candidate for mayor.
Gabe Beukinga and Bob Fioretti
Gabe Beukinga and Bob Fioretti

All TIF Presentations Now Available

Since February of 2013 The TIF Illumination Project has Illuminated 127 TIFs across 29 wards in front of some 3,400 people. In case you missed any of those thrilling presentations, you can now download any or all of them for only $2.50 each at our new  TIF Data Store.  Just click on the “TIF Illumination” category and you’ll see all the presentations and other files that are available.

Remember, while the TIF work is 100% volunteer powered, we have to cover the expenses of our home, the CivicLab and we’d also like to build an online platform to make all this data (and much more) easily available.

You can also donate a tax deductible contribution via our fiscal agent, the Investigative News Network here.

“TIF 101” Presentation Now Online

Want to take a crash course in Tax Increment Financing? If so, watch this 33 minute video that will introduce the topic and reveal the details of TIF in Chicago and the work of the TIF Illumination Project. The presenter is CivicLab co-founder, Tom Tresser, who is the Lead Organizer for the TIF research and presenter at TIF town meetings. The video is on this page. It’s password protected and we’re asking a contribution of $5.00 to get the password. All our work is 100% volunteer driven but we’ve some bills to pay and plans to expand. You’re welcome to invest more in our work, of course! Please use this PayPal link to make your payment. When we receive notice of your payment we’ll email you the password.

TIF 101 video+slide-screen

“TIF 101” Returns To The CivicLab

By popular demand (OK, one person kept emailing us), “TIF 101” returns to the CivicLab on August 20 at 7pm.

CivicLab @ PDF 2014

CivicLab co-founders Benjamin Sugar and Tom Tresser were at the Personal Democracy Forum on June 6, 2014. We were on a panel on civic labs with Beta NYC and Hack Baltimore. Here is Ben’s introduction to the Lab (3 minutes).

Photo by Fatima Sarah Khalid
Photo by Fatima Sarah Khalid