"A Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district is being proposed by the Steans Family Foundation in Lawndale". Source.
A nod to the Lawndale Alliance. The below analysis is from their notes. And they're abso-'frickin'-lutely right.
* The will of local property owners-- who will pay over $250 million in property taxes over the next 23 years-seems to be ignored in favor of a handful of influential foundations and tax-exempt organizations.
* Up to 1,200 persons could be displaced as a result of the implementation of the proposed TIF. Likewise, 635 residential units could be impacted by building code violations.
* There are a substantial number of errors in the acquisition plan and the list of homes potentially displaced by the TIF.
* In a community that is currently 93% African, with a median income of $18,342, the plan calls for racial and economic diversity, but does not articulate how this would be achieved.
* The plan was not developed with broad based community input. There is no indication that the City Department of Planning and Development is willing to change the proposed redevelopment plan and budget to take into account the suggestions provided during the two public meetings they convened on the TIF.
* There are no mechanisms in place for community oversight for development in the Lawndale community. The Lawndale Community Conservation Council was dissolved several years ago. There is no TIF Advisory Council.
Blognotes: Hot damn! Heather took a bunch of people for suckers on the TIF issue. This looks like just another plan to screw poor minorities and its brought to us by non other than our new state senator.
Image by Tom Mannis
9 comments:
Joe Moore TIF district voting record in 2007..
More converage of the same meeting
CONFLICTS OVER OGDEN/PULASKI TIF CONTINUES AT TOWN HALL MEETING
Megan Sieberg, North Lawndale Community News
TOO BAD PEOPLE NEVER LEARN AS ALL THEY ARE INTERESTED IN IS THE PIE IN THE SKY-
State Senator Ricky Hendon crosses Alderman Dixon & Munoz, speaks out agaisnt TIF!
The audience favorite for the night proved to be State Sen. Ricky Hendon, who spoke passionately about his reservations concerning TIFs in general.
“As a former Alderman, let me tell you about TIFs the way I see them,” he told the crowd. “I don’t like them!”
Reflecting on his experience as Alderman of the 27th Ward, he informed residents that the TIF created in his neighborhood after he became Senator ran community members out of their homes...
More...
"The City Council will vote to approve or disapprove the proposed TIF in February and if approved it would go to Springfield for the State to sign off on the proposal."
this is from the Columbia school newspaper article
it's complete bullshit
there is no approval step for TIF at the state level
"If the proposed TIF redevelopment plan is approved, property taxes in the area would freeze for 23 years."
this is also from the Columbia College student newspaper article
it is also complete bullshit
a TIF is NOT A TAX FREEZE
(although advocates often describe it as one because a lot of people when they hear tax freeze think, great, bring it on, sounds good to me)
property taxes inside a TIF district rise just like property taxes outside the TIF district just like property taxes everywhere, in fact if they did not TIFs would not work at all
it's just that the INCREASES are diverted to the Mayor's slush fund and are not avaialble to other taxing bodies like our schools and hospitals and parks and libraries
The public hearing will take place on Tuesday, February 19, 2008, in the City Council Chambers, 2nd Floor City Hall, 121 North LaSalle, at 1:00 p.m.
The Lawndale Alliance will be sponsoring buses for local residents. Please contact Valerie F. Leonard at 773-521-3137 or Joe Ann Bradley at 773-542- 1133 for further information.
It's sad, but I guess I'm not surprised that while campaigning for the senate seat in Rogers Park "candidate Steans" didn't talk about this controversial Steans Foundation initiative in Lawndale. Now it seems the facts appear to contradict what we heard from her about TIFs in the candidate forums. I trust the Lawndale Alliance's Joe Ann Bradley, who is quoted in the article. We collaborated on voter education and community development work years ago. If Ms. Bradley is against this TIF proposal, so am I.
Hello,everyone. On behalf of the Lawndale Alliance, I want to thank you for all your support. As you have probably heard by now, the Community Development Commmission voted 6-1 to forward the Proposed Ogden-Pulaski Redevelopment Plan to City Council, where it will go to the Finance Committee and then to the full Council. I need to get the dates for you. This decision was made, in spite of the fact that the vast majority of the residents who testified indicated a desire for community input, creation of a TIF Advisory Council, and cleaning up the Acquisition List and the List of Housing Potentially Displaced--BEFORE THE PLAN IS APPROVED. There are still a number of occupied houses on the list that should not be classified as dilapidated; as well as errors in some of the PIN Numbers/Addresses. In spite of this, the City is proceeding with the approval process.
We have also learned that at least one person whose property was removed from the list of Housing Potentially Displaced was approached by the City to purchase her property on Ogden. There is another report of someone on Kedzie Avenue that was approached by the City to purchase her property. As you may recall, the original list of Housing Potentially Displaced included a significant number of properties along Kedzie Avenue and Cermak Road. Most of these properties were included because of the consultant's recommendation to re-zone the area to commercial/light industrial. The current land use for the properties is residential.
The moral to this story is we need to be vigilant. Just because properties have been removed from the Housing Potentially Displaced list does not guarantee safety. Vacant lots on the Acquisition List will be acquired over the next 5-10 years. City officials have indicated that if any homes on the Housing Potentially Displaced list were ever targeted for acquisition, they would need to come before the Community Development Commission before the City takes action. Our experience in North Lawndale is showing that if we're not careful, the Housing Potentially Displaced list could become an effective Acquisition List. In fact, the City is acting faster on some of the properties on the Housing Potentially Displaced than they are on the Acquisition List.
We have sent the City some pictures of some of the houses that could be potentially displaced, and asked them to go out into the field again to double check. While we would agree that some of the homes are in need of repair, they would not count as dilapidated, in our lay opinion. They have agreed to take another look.
I will give a full update next week, and provide links to news articles and blogs on the coverage of our press conference and the Community Development Commission hearing.
In the meantime, I am asking you to tune in to the Northwestern News Report this Sunday at 6:30 p.m. on WYCC, Channel 20. They will do a segment on the public hearing and interviews with people whose homes are on the list of Housing Potentially Displaced. Please record it on VHS or DVD and share with your neighbors, students, church members, organizations,friends and colleagues.
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