Monday, November 15, 2010

Pulling the Wool Over Our Eyes (aka Fuzzy Math)

Property tax bills came out late last week.  If you live in a TIF district, you may have read the fine print to see how much you're paying into it.  Whew, what a relief!  The property tax bill has a series of asterisks, and the grand total of $0.00 paid.  Not bad, not bad at all.

But that's just smoke and mirrors.  We don't know how they get away with that brand of "fuzzy math."  Because if you take the time to go to Cook County Clerk David Orr's website and punch in a few numbers, a very different, and more truthful, picture appears.

This is what our tax bill read as far as the TIF:


And this is what we discovered we're really paying:

COUNTY OF COOK 2.4662999524%
FOREST PRESERVE DISTRICT OF COOK COUNTY 0.3067225829%
CITY OF CHICAGO 5.5523047149%
CITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARY FUND 0.6197048103%
CITY OF CHICAGO SCHOOL BLDG & IMP FUND 0.7010801895%
TIF CITY OF CHICAGO-WILSON YARD 71.0366246719%
CHICAGO COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT 508 0.9389466823%
BOARD OF EDUCATION 14.8103190029%
CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT 1.8465951419%
CHICAGO PARK DIST. AQUARIUM & MUSEUM BONDS 0.0876350237%
METRO WATER RECLAMATION DIST OF GR CHGO 1.6337672273%
Total Percentage = 100.00%

Nearly three-quarters of our taxes aren't going to City services, schools, police, firefighters... all the things they've traditionally funded.  Think about that the next time you hear that the City is 2300 police officers short. That City workers must take nearly a month off in unpaid furlough days. That teachers spend over $500 of their own money for school supplies because the City can't afford to supply each classroom.  That libraries are closing early.

And then ask yourself why they're hiding this fact on your property tax bill. Because you're the one paying for this mess, and someone else is doing the job of allocating that money (fairly poorly, in our opinion). And then ask what our neighborhood needs more: police? teachers? or fish farms?

To check out your own secret, hidden TIF/tax liability amount, go to the County Clerk's website and plug in your property's PIN.

12 comments:

  1. Mine is even better:
    TIF CITY OF CHICAGO-WILSON YARD: 74.513133818%

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  2. Mine too...TIF CITY OF CHICAGO-WILSON YARD 74.513133818% ... now then can someone tell me what this is.. an additional property tax I am paying for Truman College.. does everyone in the city have this ?
    CHICAGO COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT 508 0.7895559536%

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  3. I looked up my tax PIN and it said that my area is not a designated TIF district for the 2009 tax year. I live in the 46th ward and on the brinks of the 48th ward near the Foster/Sheridan area.

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  4. All three of my condo`s are south of Montrose and east of Clarendon and mine also says that my ares is not designated as a TIF district. What areas do you have to own in to get nailed.

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  5. Wiseguy,, everyone gets nailed with a TIF.. because your property taxes end up going up to cover what the TIF is keeping out of the general funds..

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  6. If you live in Chicago, you're getting nailed, regardless of whether or not you pay into a TIF directly.

    Specifically, here's a map of the boundaries of WYTIF

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  7. I'm in Buena Park, not in the TIF district...but holy sh*t my bill went up! My neighbor said that they assessed our parking spaces at 66k!! are you kidding me?!

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  8. Does anyone understand why the bills went up? I thought the 2nd installment was supposed to be lower, since I thought we paid 60% of the bill on the first installment.

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  9. Elizabeth,

    who really knows - and TIFs certainly don't help; but this article may prove helpful in understanding what's going on, specifically:

    "If you received a large decrease in your assessment and no one else got a decrease on the assessment you're gonna pay less because everyone else is going to have to pay more because you're going to pay a smaller share towards the amount of money the taxing districts are to collect," said Bill Vaselopulos, manager of tax extensions for the Cook County Clerk's Office.

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  10. Lizzie,

    the entire city was reassessed. That means neighborhoods that did relatively well in the housing market downturn, that would include Uptown, are now paying a higher share of taxes.

    Property values around here have generally dropped 10-15 percent from the 2006 highs. Many city neighborhoods have seen values drop by much more which means they are now paying less in taxes.

    Also the first installment was 55% of the prior years taxes.

    Every three years the tax burden gets shifted(or shafted) around.

    I suspect one reason Shiller chose not to run, besides fearing my camera and incessant mocking, is that she knew the 46th Ward would be getting hit with some substantial increases. Combine that with TIF abuse and she was going to take more political hits than a $3 pinata.

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  11. I'm just surprised the new assessed values hit in the middle of the year.

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  12. I hope all the denizens of Uptown who thought it was a good idea to allocate massive amounts of money to subsidizing the Target Store and the "affordable" apartments that cost over $400K a unit to build, enjoy reading their tax bills and paying their taxes.

    It would be OK if they were the only ones being hit. Unfortunately, as others have pointed out, the entire city is paying for this massive misallocation of tax revenues in the form of reduced services, as well as higher taxes and fees.

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