The Better Government Association and Crain’s Chicago Business published an expose of how $55 million in TIF dollars was money laundered by city agencies.
TIF Illumination project lead organizer Tom Tresser spent three hours with BGA reporter John Chase giving deep background and overview of Chicago’s TIFs as well as on the TIFs surrounding the Marriott’s Hotel and DePaul Arena projects. He also reacted to the reporter’s findings by calling the entire TIF program a massive slush fund controlled by the mayor and his allies.
All references to the CivicLab or the TIF Illumination Project were struck from the article by the editors.
This is ironic or perhaps poetic since neither the BGA or Crain’s have reported on the work of the CivicLab or the TIF Illumination Project or the “Chicago Is Not Broke” book and the 105 public meetings triggered by our work.
Although the mainstream media in Chicago seems to want to ignore us, we will continue to Investigate, Illuminate and activate folks all over the city.
