Accountability

The City of Chicago must commit to informing the public in writing within 14 days of a consultant being hired by the City to prepare a TIF eligibility study. The “public” includes all those persons listed on the interested parties registry and all property owners within the proposed eligibility study area. A public meeting must be conducted no more than 21 days after the completion of the eligibility study. The minutes of that meeting must be included in the final redevelopment plan.

Every TIF redevelopment plan must include a section on land use and land acquisition intent. A map of existing land use and proposed land use changes must be included in every redevelopment plan. If the plan for a proposed TIF district does not recommend any land use changes or land acquisition, then the plan must specifically state that intent and include a map that shows no changes to existing land use or property ownership.

Citizens need to be informed of the status of each TIF district two times a year. The City of Chicago must commit to holding hearings for every TIF in each planning district two times a year with the developer, consultants, city departments and residents, business owners and local community organizations.

The City of Chicago must commit to getting taxpayers a high return on their investment. The City of Chicago must commit to formulating “claw back” provisions within every redevelopment agreement requiring developers and companies to pay the entire public subsidy with interest back if they do not fulfill their contract.

The Department of Planning and Development must set up a database that reports the wages, zip codes of new employees, location, and number of all jobs created with TIF funds. All entities receiving TIF assistance must provide the City with this information on a quarterly basis each year or be fined for failing to comply with reporting requirements.

Affordability

The City of Chicago must commit to an affordable housing set-aside of no less than 30% of every residential TIF redevelopment agreement, or a developer must set aside 10% of the total cost of the residential development into a low-income housing trust fund.

The City of Chicago should define affordable as those housing units that serve those with an area median family income of 50% or below when negotiating residential redevelopment agreements with developers and between 50 and 80% of family median income for non-rental housing.

Preference for development by local community development corporations or organizations who serve existing community residents.

Direct Benefits

The City of Chicago must commit to extending the living wage ordinance to all TIF projects.

The City of Chicago must commit to spending at least 10 percent of TIF funds on job training in very low-income and industrial TIFs. The primary consideration in evaluating the level of public subsidy should be the amount of increased employment opportunities for disadvantaged Chicago residents.

The City must commit to issuing a Request for Proposal to release job-training funds from TIF revenues to capable and competent non-profit job training agencies to provide skilled job training and placement in low income and industrial TIFs.

The City of Chicago must commit to disclosing the list of proposed public improvements to be paid for with TIF money and invite comment from those on the Interested Party Registry.

The City of Chicago must commit to front funding the Neighborhood Investment Program and the Small Business Investment Fund in every low- income and industrial TIF with a minimum investment of $5 million dollars per TIF. The City must issue a RFP for each TIF so that local non-profits can participate in the administration of the NIP and SBIF.