After accounting for upcoming obligations, the city decides annually how much extra TIF money to surplus. Surplus TIF revenues are divvied up proportionally to each taxing district: CPS is the biggest beneficiary. Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 2024 budget included a record TIF surplus of $433.8 million, over half of which went to CPS. The city’s cut of that was $100 million.
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.