Curtis Black from Newstips–a Community Media Workshop blog–has a great article about the fundamental elements missing from Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposed reform of Chicago’s tax increment financing program (TIF).
Emanuel, who released his TIF Reform Panel report Aug. 29, touted the new transparency of the program. But some community activists say transparency is just the beginning of needed reform, Black reports.
With the release of his TIF Reform Panel report, Mayor Emanuel may want to check “TIF reform” off his to-do list, but community activists who work on the issue say that would be highly premature.
“They’re talking about transparency as if that’s all we have to do,” said Sonia Kwon of the Raise Your Hand Coalition. “Transparency and accountability are just tools to reform TIF. I don’t see this as TIF reform.”
In any case, Emanuel’s panel skips “the first step in transparency” – listing TIF information on property tax bills, said Kwon. “To know you are in a TIF district and how much of your tax money is going to TIF – that’s the first step.”
That was a major proposal of the Community TIF Task Force of the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group, which brought together dozens of community groups, said Jacqueline Leavy, former executive director of NCBG. (It was also a major proposal of then-Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley, apparently forgotten when he reacted enthusiastically to the report this week.)
