As Chicago Looks to Expiring TIF Districts for Increased Revenue, Here’s a Reminder of How TIF Works – Civic Federation

Several fallacies in the argument:

1. Under fund accounting, tax rate caps relative to EAV DO limit the amounts which can be taxed by school taxing districts.
2. Artificially suppressed EAV has increased the proportion of State funding which massively wealthy school districts have obtained (TIF maintains EAV evaluations at decades-old, zero-inflation-considered pricing).
3. TIFs life span is 35 years. After 23, there is a rubberstamp 12 year extension from Springfield friends-and-family. Beyond that (see Sears) TIF can live 50 years, without any recourse available to beleaguered taxpayers.