"When a TIF district is created, any additional revenues over the base EAV go into the TIF fund, not to the schools, parks, etc."
A district does not have to be poor to become a TIF. It seems to me that it's a recipe for increasing, not decreasing financial disparity within the city, as districts with money get to pour the money generated by the ultimate increase in the districts tax base back into the already-rich district rather than helping the city as a whole increase its tax base.
The school I teach at is in the ward where the controversial Wal-Mart went up (Emma Mitts, the alderman spoke about it to the students the Friday before spring break). I'm curious if it's in a TIF district-- that would actually be a good thing-- the neighborhood (Austin) badly needs an infusion of business and capital.
Kathy, have you looked at that link? I actually printed it up-- all 178 pages of it-- at work, fortunately-- and just a cursory look reveals some interesting things. Did you know that a couple of the developments at Six Corners were TIF funded? I don't think you can call that area blighted, or a lot of the areas involved. And 30% of the land area of Chicago? That's amazing!
Yes, I've been slowly readng through it, though it's kind of mind-numbing. I did know that Six Corners was in a TIF, as is that whole Lawrence Ave. & Milwaukee area (which includes the bike shop owned by a man who won't sell to the city--TIFs are tied-up in the eminent domain issue, too).
I read most of those articles by Ben Joravsky, as they came out in the Reader, and it was probably his questioning that got me interested in learning more about this topic.
3 comments:
This is interesting:
http://www.ncbg.org/tifs/tifs.htm
"When a TIF district is created, any additional revenues over the base EAV go into the TIF fund, not to the schools, parks, etc."
A district does not have to be poor to become a TIF. It seems to me that it's a recipe for increasing, not decreasing financial disparity within the city, as districts with money get to pour the money generated by the ultimate increase in the districts tax base back into the already-rich district rather than helping the city as a whole increase its tax base.
The school I teach at is in the ward where the controversial Wal-Mart went up (Emma Mitts, the alderman spoke about it to the students the Friday before spring break). I'm curious if it's in a TIF district-- that would actually be a good thing-- the neighborhood (Austin) badly needs an infusion of business and capital.
Kathy, have you looked at that link? I actually printed it up-- all 178 pages of it-- at work, fortunately-- and just a cursory look reveals some interesting things. Did you know that a couple of the developments at Six Corners were TIF funded? I don't think you can call that area blighted, or a lot of the areas involved. And 30% of the land area of Chicago? That's amazing!
Yes, I've been slowly readng through it, though it's kind of mind-numbing. I did know that Six Corners was in a TIF, as is that whole Lawrence Ave. & Milwaukee area (which includes the bike shop owned by a man who won't sell to the city--TIFs are tied-up in the eminent domain issue, too).
I read most of those articles by Ben Joravsky, as they came out in the Reader, and it was probably his questioning that got me interested in learning more about this topic.
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