TIF 101

  • Watch Video of Feb 12 TIF Town Meeting

    by - Feb 28, 2013
    Thanks to the great folks at Chicago Public Access, CAN-TV, watch this video of the three presenters plus the Q&A session (1 hour, 22 minutes). Tweet
  • 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,...
  • Town Meeting Sheds Light On TIFs

    by - Feb 16, 2013
    Over 220 people packed the Chopin Theatre on Tuesday night, February 12 to hear about Tax Increment Financing (TIFs) and to organize themselves to do something about them. The TIF Town Meeting was...
  • TIF Town Meeting Presentation

    by - Feb 13, 2013
    Here is the presentation Tom Tresser gave at the February 12 TIF Town Meeting on the 12 TIFs in the 27th Ward (audio = 23 minutes). The meeting was held at the fabulous...
  • Tom On TIFs – Radio Interview

    by - Feb 7, 2013
    Check out this 13 minute interview by Mike Stephen of Outside The Loop radio. We talk TIFs, the February 12 TIF Town Meeting and the work of the CivicLab. Tweet
  • 27th Ward Results

    by - Jan 30, 2013
    Here is the presentation plus audio that reveals what we found out about the 12 TIFs inside the 27th Ward (1 hour, 25 min) CivicLab TIF Illumination Workshop – January 29, 2013 from...
  • Sound Off At TIF Town Meeting!

    by - Jan 10, 2013
    We’re going to the first community town meeting on TIFs on February 12 at the Chopin Theater! Find out the details and RSVP on Facebook. Featured Speakers: Ben Joravsky – Award winning political...
  • TIFs Short Change Public Schools (The REALLY Public Ones)

    by - Jan 4, 2013
    As reported in Crain’s Chicago Business, “A new study examining where tax increment financing (TIF) proceeds go for construction in the Chicago Public Schools finds selective enrollment, charter and magnet schools are favored...
  • Help Us Investigate And Explain This

    by - Dec 16, 2012
    Is it the Return of the Blob? Is a spreading epidemic? Is the map to secret treasure? Could it be all three? It’s the map of Chicago’s 163 Tax Increment Finance Districts. The...
  • 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...