Tax Increment Finance (TIF) districts extract billions of dollars in property taxes from property owners across the USA and channel money to large corporations and private developers with little or no public input. Chicago (where this effort is located) has 163 TIF districts that extracted $454 million in 2011. Over the years hundreds of millions of dollars have been showered on such companies as Coca-Cola, United Airlines, UPS, Home Depot, Target, Hyatt Hotels, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. This is a time of repeated cut backs in public education, mass transit, public health and other essential services.
We simply call on all state legislatures to pass a "Truth in Property Tax Bill" law that would place the amount of property taxes that are taken by a TIF district on your property tax bill if your property is located in one. Right now, for most jurisdictions, this NUMBER IS NOT SHOWN.
Let's not let our property tax bills LIE to us. If you are in a TIF District (sometimes these special taxing zones have different names) and some of your property taxes are being diverted to this body - therefore NOT going to the units of government that rely on property taxes that rely on them for operation - then we want that amount clearly stated on all property tax bills.
For more information:
http://www.tifreports.com
