Shared Research – Pitch In!

There are 1,220 TIFs in Illinois inside of 455 municipalities. In 2010 they extracted $1.12 BILLION in property taxes from taxpayers across the state. What do we know, collectively, about all this economic activity? Precious little.

We need YOU to become a TIF Illuminator and help shed light on this economic transfer system that takes from the many and gives to the few.

Examine a TIF in your community and earn your very own “Certificate of Illumination” that certifies that you pitched in and help to investigate and explain how our taxes are collected and distributed in Illinois.

What you can do:

ANYWHERE IN AMERICA:

• Sign our online petition to demand that all TIF activity be placed on the property tax bill. If you have a property inside a TIF district, your tax bill should say so and tell you how much of your property taxes that TIF collected.
  Go to http://signon.org/sign/put-tax-increment-finance – please CIRCULATE this link and ask your friends to sign.

IF YOU ARE IN ILLINOIS:

• To become a TIF Illuminator and take on some of the shared research, go to this page on the Illinois Comptroller’s Office web site and pick your town or city. Make sure you are starting with the 2011 year. Next download the TIF reports from that city.
• Visit this shared Google Spreadsheet page for full instructions! http://tinyurl.com/Illinois-TIF-Research

IF YOU ARE IN CHICAGO:

• Help investigate the TIF funded projects in the 27th Ward! Go to this Google Spreadsheet and pick one project and sign up to Illuminate it! http://tinyurl.com/27thWard-Shared-Research
• If we all pitch in, we can swiftly illuminate the REAL story behind the $454 MILLION property taxes that Chicago’s TIF districts collected in 2011!