| Task Force Update
NCBG continues to work with community leaders
and organizations in pursuing public policy
reforms governing the TIF programming and spending.
As part of our advocacy work concerning the
City’s $4.7 billion 2003 budget, NCBG
shared critical research findings with the public
about how TIF dollars should be included in
the City’s annual budget discussion. It
is important that we pursue further this concept
with City officials.
The first official TIFWORKS Advisory Council
met in January 2003. This 11 member panel will
help determine how TIF job training and placement
dollars will be spent. It is the intent of NCBG
to provide technical support to this Advisory
Council and to bring the community closer to
the decision making table to ensure accountability.
With the challenges currently facing the Ford
Supplier Plant employment program, NCBG intends
to elevate the importance of job training and
effective placement services.
At the State level, NCBG’s TIF Task Force
is launching a State Legislative effort, calling
for a closer evaluation of TIF performance and
spending. Two (2) critical deadlines exist for
NCBG to win either a new State law or State
resolution that will create a task force to
study TIF programming and its public benefits.
With an expected $5 billion deficit the State
is looking seriously at a host of tax programs
and its impact on the budget.
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Each month for more than three years, NCBG has been
bringing together people from all over Chicago to
share stories and strategies, ask questions, and come
home with new information about the City’s TIF
Program. NCBG’s TIF Community Task Force has
brought together people from residential, commercial,
and industrial areas of the City in an effort to build
a broad-based coalition with the common goals of increasing
public participation in the TIF program, encouraging
affordable neighborhoods, and bringing direct benefits
to existing residents and businesses. The Task Force
has taken a three-pronged approach to its work:
- Accountability: Open up the TIF
process to the people who are directly affected,
both in the establishment of TIF districts and the
ongoing decisions about how to spend the money over
their 23-year lifespans. Develop and implement models
for strong community oversight panels in each TIF
district. Ensure that residents and businesses get
"early warning" about developments in
the TIF district.
- Affordability: Ensure that neighborhoods
remain affordable to existing residents and businesses,
and that development does not displace people from
the communities where they have invested their money
and time. Encourage the use of TIF to develop more
and better affordable housing to meet the needs
of Chicago residents.
- Direct Benefits: Ensure that
everyone benefits from TIF-funded projects, not
only big developers. TIF dollars should be used
to create good-paying jobs for low- and moderate-income
Chicago residents, as well as for effective job
training programs. Wherever possible, TIF dollars
should be used to make public improvements –
such as basic infrastructure, school repairs and
construction, and park improvements – or to
encourage projects that meet the needs outlined
in plans developed by the communities themselves.
The NCBG TIF Task Force meets every fourth Tuesday
of the month at 6:00 p.m. at 407 S. Dearborn St. in
the 14th Floor conference room. For more information,
or to confirm meeting dates and times, please call
312-939-7198.
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