A reader writes:
From my PIN, but would love to do a compare/contrast:
COUNTY OF COOK 2.3786534110%
FOREST PRESERVE DISTRICT OF COOK COUNTY 0.2923164433%
CITY OF CHICAGO 5.3190129288%
CITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARY FUND 0.5846328866%
CITY OF CHICAGO SCHOOL BLDG & IMP FUND 0.6706083111%
CITY OF CHICAGO SPECIAL SERVICE AREA #34 1.3240215372%
TIF CITY OF CHICAGO-WILSON YARD 71.0721355049%
CHICAGO COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT 508 0.8941444147%
BOARD OF EDUCATION 14.1687499568%
CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT 1.7653620496%
CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT 1.7653620496%
CHICAGO PARK DIST. AQUARIUM & MUSEUM BONDS 0.0859754245%
METRO WATER RECLAMATION DIST OF GR CHGO 1.4443871315%
Total Percentage = 100.00%
is TIF shown on your tax bill, or is this from the Clerk's site?
ReplyDeleteTIF Property Search
after the 1st couple of decimal places to the right of the decimal, additional precision serves only to obscure
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, there is a TIF line item on your bill, but nothing more than a *** reference to a note stating to go to the clerk's office to get more TIF info.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the city and county governments are in no hurry to add any TIF-related information onto the actual bill for fear losing tax payers via spontaneous cranial detonation.
Mine only has *** like yo said.
ReplyDeleteI went to the link Hugh gave and
ReplyDelete68.42% of my taxes go to Wilson Yard TIF and Helen Shiller's keen and unique sense of urban planning and Uptown "revitalization"
6.08% to the City of Chicago (cops, firefighters)\
2/3 of 1% to the libraries
16.2% to the school system
INSANITY. No wonder they hide it on the property tax bill.
According to the site, none of mine are going directly to a TIF (although we all know that we all suffer indirectly) and this leads me to ask, once again, how do they determine the TIF boundaries?
ReplyDeleteI am on Magnolia, just north of Sunnyside. It appears, from the low-detail TIF map that I've seen, that everybody on the west side of Magnolia and south of Sunnyside is in and everybody north of Wilson is as well. So, why are the 7 buildings in between not? Of those buildings, two are subsidized housing, two are condos, one is a small rental, and the last is the large apartment building just south of Rayan plaza at Magnolia and Wilson. I don't know if the east side of the street, between Sunnyside and Wilson is in or not.
The boundaries just seem arbitrary to me, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised since so much of the TIF program is less than well thought out.
OMG...I can't believe it. They are seriously covering it up with the tax bills! 71%!!! Check this out:
ReplyDeleteAgency Name
Percentage
COUNTY OF COOK
2.3786534110%
FOREST PRESERVE DISTRICT OF COOK COUNTY 0.2923164433%
CITY OF CHICAGO 5.3190129288%
CITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARY FUND 0.5846328866%
CITY OF CHICAGO SCHOOL BLDG & IMP FUND 0.6706083111%
CITY OF CHICAGO SPECIAL SERVICE AREA #34 1.3240215372%
TIF CITY OF CHICAGO-WILSON YARD 71.0721355049%
CHICAGO COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT 508 0.8941444147%
BOARD OF EDUCATION 14.1687499568%
CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT 1.7653620496%
CHICAGO PARK DIST. AQUARIUM & MUSEUM BONDS 0.0859754245%
METRO WATER RECLAMATION DIST OF GR CHGO 1.4443871315%
Total Percentage = 100.00%
...this leads me to ask, once again, how do they determine the TIF boundaries?
ReplyDeleteEasy. They Gerrymander them until they get just the right numbers they're looking for to legally argue the TIF is justified.
Look at the TIF map of the Loop. A building generates too much tax or appreciates too much and throws off the result? Eliminate that building from the TIF.
That's how the central business district of the 3rd largest city in the US is "blighted" and requires a TIF to generate economic development.
"According to the site, none of mine are going directly to a TIF"
ReplyDeleteyes, this is the BIG LIE: "if you are not in a TIF you DON'T pay", "TIF are a local concern"
thanks for the post
"...there is a TIF line item on your bill, but nothing more than a *** reference to a note stating to go to the clerk's office to get more TIF info."
ReplyDeleteok, thanks for the reply
in the wild wild west of unaccountability that is Cook County asterisks with a note on where to get more information almost qualifies as a revolution in openness
TIFs must be contiguous
ReplyDeletea Chicago TIF map results from the dynamic tension between two criteria:
1. the increase in property taxes of the district as a whole must be below the City-wide avg for 3 out of 5 years prior to establishment (recalling that our properties are re-assessed only once every 3 years this is not hard)
2. desire to capture future increases from up & coming properties
property taxes are re-asessed only every 3 years, so while it is theoretically possible that a TIF study at 5 years duration would encompass 2 re-assessment cycles this has never happened
ReplyDeleteso think about it: an area is re-assessed, call it year 1 of the cycle. In year 2 it is NOT reassessed, but elsewhere 1/3 of the City IS re-assessed. In year 3 it is again not reassessed, but ANOTHER 1/3 of the city is. so you start your 5 year study period between assessments, and you are almost guaranteed to produce the legally required finding of falling behind the city-wide avg
with the asterisks & note the bills of taxpayers just got slightly more honest, but for most of us who are not in TIF our tax bills are still lying to us
ReplyDeleteIn contrast, for those outside of the Wilson Yard TIF (just south of Montrose on Sheridan) it becomes obvious how much the health & safety and education are being compromised... 51% of my bill goes to the Board of Ed and 19% to the City of Chicago -- a difference of approx. 37% for education and 13% for the City compared to those in the TIF. No wonder they are all suffering from such huge budget gaps while 100's of millions sit in the TIF pot.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Reader and Ben Joravsky in another TIF-related article this week,
ReplyDelete"On September 28, 2006, the day the county board was scheduled to vote on Quigley's proposal, Mayor Daley sent over aldermen Walter Burnett, HELEN SHILLER [caps mine], and Patrick O'Connor as well as representatives from the schools, parks, and city to lobby against it. Presiding over the meeting was county board finance chair John Daley, the mayor's brother. Quigley's erstwhile reformer allies on the board deserted him: Larry Suffredin, the commissioner from Evanston, said too much information would only confuse voters. Forrest Claypool and Tony Peraica had been at the meeting, but they managed to be gone by the time the TIF vote came up."