New TIF in the Loop

by Kate Piercy The city of Chicago has just approved 6 million dollars in tax increment financing (TIF) for Accretive Health Inc. “to pay for job training and the build-out costs” of a new facility, which will be located at 231 South LaSalle Street. By law, TIFs are intended to promote economic development in blighted areas,...

by Kate Piercy

The city of Chicago has just approved 6 million dollars in tax increment financing (TIF) for Accretive Health Inc. “to pay for job training and the build-out costs” of a new facility, which will be located at 231 South LaSalle Street.

By law, TIFs are intended to promote economic development in blighted areas, and this is just another example of the widespread disregard of the law regarding TIF development. Can anyone call the Loop, the center of business in downtown Chicago, “blighted?” Not likely.

Why are taxpayers on the hook for subsidizing such developments, all under the guise of TIF? Cook County collected $875 million from taxpayers in TIF money in 2008. How much of this went to economic development in blighted areas?

Check out Cook County Clerk David Orr’s TIF reports, and you’ll see development after development in the least of blighted areas, like the Loop and Lincoln Park.

Taxpayers, do you live in a TIF district? Is it blighted? Take these questions to your elected officials and ask them why your property tax dollars are being funneled into a TIF instead of your schools, parks or libraries. Only when the public starts taking action on the TIF issue will any true reform occur.