About us

  • Coverage Of 7th Ward Illumination

    by - Apr 2, 2013
    From Progress Illinois, “Dozens of South Shore residents weren’t too happy upon learning that a portion of their property taxes have been used as part of the city’s tax increment financing, or TIF, program....
  • CivicLab Will PechaKucha On March 5

    by - Feb 20, 2013
    Tom will be presenting at the 25th edition of PechaKucha Chicago at Martyr’s on March 5 at 8:00pm. What is PechaKucha? “PechaKucha 20×20 is a simple presentation format where you show 20 images,...
  • Technology & Democracy

    by - Jan 3, 2013
    Check out this TED talk by Clay Shirky on how peer-to-peer technology can open a new frontier of participatory democracy. It’s what the TIF Illumination Project and the CivicLab are all about! Tweet
  • Chicago Reader Wishes Us Well!

    by - Dec 13, 2012
    The great Ben Joravsky, who has forgotten more about TIFs than most will recall, has written about the CivicLab and our TIF Illumination Project. He keeps talking about Tom Tresser, but the No...
  • Shared Research – Pitch In!

    by - Dec 8, 2012
    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...
  • Good Bye and Good Luck (from Roger)

    by - Mar 22, 2011
    I ran against Roger Keats for Cook County Board President last year. He was the Republican candidate and I was the Green Party candidate. I got this email from him today. He says...
  • Scan for Contact Info

    by - Feb 25, 2011
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  • TIF Report Launches

    by - Feb 7, 2011
    The TIF Report is a new web site being prepared by TresserLabs. This site will contain information, reports and updates on Tax increment Finance districts. We will start with a focus on Cook...