TIF Talking Points for the CPS School Closing Community Hearings - SAVE OUR SCHOOLS, DON'T CLOSE THEM!
by the Tax Integrity and Fairness Alliance
-TIFs are property taxes that go to a slushfund controlled by the mayor and a few aldermen instead of to schools and other services. They have taken over $250 million a year that otherwise would have gone to CPS.
-In Chicago, over half of property taxes that aren't diverted to TIFs go to schools.
-When a TIF district is created, the money that goes to schools from there is frozen for 23 years and will not increase even though the costs increase dramatically due to inflation.
-The city says we're broke and need to close 50-120 schools, but there's $1.4 billion sitting in TIF bank accounts controlled by the mayor.
-TIFs allow politicians to hoard the community's money, starving services of resources to push out local populations.
-Then, the same TIF money not spent on the community that paid those taxes can be reinvested in infrastructure to promote gentrification.
-Since TIFs were introduced in Chicago in 1986, they have extracted over $5 BILLION in property taxes from Chicagoans. We don't know how all that money has been spent. For one ten year period research shows over half went to private projects. How these projects were selected is a mystery. As there is no public input, oversight or evaluation. The following major corporations have received millions of dollars in public subsidies through the TIF program: Target, UPS, Home Depot, The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Willis Insurance (bought the Sears Tower), The French Market, Coca-Cola, United Airlines, Quaker Oats, Jewel/Osco, Grossinger Auto, Hyatt Hotels. It is very common to see large development and real estate firms awarded millions of public dollars to subsidize the construction of high-rise condo projects.
-Of the TIF money spent on school buildings, over 55% goes to selective enrollment and private operators, although neighborhood public schools make up over 69% of CPS total schools.
-Overall, 25% of schools receiving TIF funds are in neighborhoods where the median income is higher than the city’s median.
-Latinos compose 44% of all CPS students. However, schools with a Latino population that are at or above this proportion received only 27% of all TIF revenues going to school construction projects.
-Since their advent, Chicago's TIFs have taken just over $2.5 billion in funds from the Chicago Public Schools. Only the tiny minority of those funds have returned to the schools in capital development and the little that has been expended without a cohesive facilities plan.
-This has resulted in massive yearly deficits, increasing debt service and the continued underfunding of high need schools.
-While TIFs were originally conceived to catalyze investment and growth in high need areas, most often in Chicago, they have been used to divert funds from the high need schools into the richest neighborhoods and the pockets of connected business operators. This has contributed to the long-term disinvestment and destruction of the very communities that TIFs were supposed to save.
-TIFs are property taxes that go to a slushfund controlled by the mayor and a few aldermen instead of to schools and other services. They have taken over $250 million a year that otherwise would have gone to CPS.
-In Chicago, over half of property taxes that aren't diverted to TIFs go to schools.
-When a TIF district is created, the money that goes to schools from there is frozen for 23 years and will not increase even though the costs increase dramatically due to inflation.
-The city says we're broke and need to close 50-120 schools, but there's $1.4 billion sitting in TIF bank accounts controlled by the mayor.
-TIFs allow politicians to hoard the community's money, starving services of resources to push out local populations.
-Then, the same TIF money not spent on the community that paid those taxes can be reinvested in infrastructure to promote gentrification.
-Since TIFs were introduced in Chicago in 1986, they have extracted over $5 BILLION in property taxes from Chicagoans. We don't know how all that money has been spent. For one ten year period research shows over half went to private projects. How these projects were selected is a mystery. As there is no public input, oversight or evaluation. The following major corporations have received millions of dollars in public subsidies through the TIF program: Target, UPS, Home Depot, The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Willis Insurance (bought the Sears Tower), The French Market, Coca-Cola, United Airlines, Quaker Oats, Jewel/Osco, Grossinger Auto, Hyatt Hotels. It is very common to see large development and real estate firms awarded millions of public dollars to subsidize the construction of high-rise condo projects.
-Of the TIF money spent on school buildings, over 55% goes to selective enrollment and private operators, although neighborhood public schools make up over 69% of CPS total schools.
-Overall, 25% of schools receiving TIF funds are in neighborhoods where the median income is higher than the city’s median.
-Latinos compose 44% of all CPS students. However, schools with a Latino population that are at or above this proportion received only 27% of all TIF revenues going to school construction projects.
-Since their advent, Chicago's TIFs have taken just over $2.5 billion in funds from the Chicago Public Schools. Only the tiny minority of those funds have returned to the schools in capital development and the little that has been expended without a cohesive facilities plan.
-This has resulted in massive yearly deficits, increasing debt service and the continued underfunding of high need schools.
-While TIFs were originally conceived to catalyze investment and growth in high need areas, most often in Chicago, they have been used to divert funds from the high need schools into the richest neighborhoods and the pockets of connected business operators. This has contributed to the long-term disinvestment and destruction of the very communities that TIFs were supposed to save.