So, it’s the end of summer and all Illinois municipalities that have TIF districts must issue their 2025 annual reports. In Chicago they are posted here: https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dcd/supp_info/tif-district-annual-reports-2004-present.html.

In the old days (we started reviewing these reports back in 2009), it was about gathering a group of volunteers to harvest all the data from these PDF annual reports. I would create a training document showing the steps and our team would divide up the reports and open them one by one and extract the relevant data and post them to a shared spreadsheet. Cutting and pasting the resulting spreadsheet looks like this.

When I started this work, there were 164 TIF districts. Today they are 108 operating TIFs. Over the years, perhaps as many as 50 people have volunteered for this work. This includes two years when the Documenters at the City Bureau. Curiously, the City Bureau has never reported on this work – even when their own employees helped to gather the data ☹. The process took all day and then Merle and I would spot check the work for accuracy.

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It starts with the data gathering. Today, thanks to data liberationist extraordinaire Will Fineberg, who has developed an automatic harvesting tool, the data is collected in minutes!

The spreadsheet has the following columns:

• TIF Name

• Start/End Year

• TIF # (the highest #, the most recent TIF is 186, the Red Line Extension)

• Latest Year Total Property Tax Dollars Removed

• Cumulative Property Tax Removal (since the TIF was created)

• Latest Year $ Transfers In (moved into the TIF from a touching TIF)

• Cumulative $ Transferred In

• Latest Year Expenses (how much the TIF spent)

• Fund Balance End of the Latest Year

• Latest Year $ Transferred Out (money moved into a touching TIF)

• Latest Year $ Distributed (When the mayor declares a surplus, he directs how much money is removed from designated TIFs and then distributed to local units of government)

• Latest Year City Administration Costs (The Department of Planning & Development taxes our TIFs and skims a portion of the revenue the TIF removes to cover certain costs – it’s a skim of a skim, if you will. Why this happens is a mystery as the Department’s budget is set and explained every year. This is extra revenue for the department available to no other unit of government. In 2025 it was over $17 million. We are the only source of reporting on this obscure annual transaction. It has never been covered by the local press.

• Latest Year Finance Costs + Attending Bank (Some TIFs are paying down bonds, the result of Mayor Daley’s Schools Across Chicago program from decades ago. The full picture on these bonds is beyond our ability to construct and we would love for an accountant with forensic reporting experience to break down the complete history of TIF debt payments. Good luck with that.)
  Once I have the spreadsheet, I can order it to display data in a number of ways. The default view is to show the TIFs in alphabetical order. I then create a version my TIF number. I then create smaller spreadsheets of the Top Ten Lists, showing the champion TIDs by (1) property tax extraction, (2) annual expense, (3) year-end fund balance, and (4) administrative cost.

I then create a press release with all this information. In the past, I was able to break down the TIF activity by racial composition of the wards. We did that for the 2021 numbers, but it is too hard and complex a task to repeat annually (no office, no staff, no budget), so I keep those insights in the press release. In the past I also added a number of public policy conclusions that this work surfaces. For 2025 I did not include those insights.

You can access the Chicago 2025 TIF Report at https://tifreports.com/chicago-tif. In order to access the Chicago TIF data you will have to become a member of the TIF Illumination Project. There is no charge and the sign-up form is on the home page. Memberships last for one year. You might also consider making a non-deductible contribution to support this work.

I use Action Network to email out this press release. I have some 9,300 contacts on this list. About 1,400 are local and regional media contacts. This process have gone on every year since 2013. The major Chicago media rarely picks up on this work. No local media source has carried or reported on our 2025 data yet. But that is par for the course. I just did our 234^th public TIF meeting on July 20 at the Woodson Regional Public Library on 95^th Street. No press there that night even though we revealed civic finance facts never before known to the public.

Right now, I am talking with organizers from Northfield, Northbrook, and Maywood about doing TIF Illuminations in the suburbs. Also, the leadership of 10 X 10 To Win are interested in doing more TIF organizing in Black wards. Stay tuned 😊.

STOP THE PRESSES! NEW TIF BOOK READY!

As promised, CivicNotes subscribers are getting the first notice of the publication of my new book on TIFs. It’s got a long title: Abolish TIFs – Get Lower Property Taxes, More Equity & $20 Billion for U.S. Public Schools! It is for people who want to understand what a Tax Increment Financing District is and how it works and how to organize around them.

You can get the first seven chapters for free at https://tinyurl.com/TIF-Book-Sample - Wow! You might also consider making a non-deductible contribution to support this work.

The full book will be available via LuLu for print-on-demand hard copy orders and for viewing online at ISSUU shortly. I am building a companion website at www.abolishtifsbook.com that will contain all sorts of resources referenced in the book. Like I did with my book on No Games Chicago – www.nogameschicagobook.com.

I would love feedback and also – if you know of a graphic designer who would like to design the book, I will share revenues from all book sales for a donated book design 😊.

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1. TIF Illumination #234!

The political action organization 10 X 10 To Win hosted a TIF Illumination for the 21^st Ward on August 20 at the Woodson Regional Library on 95^th Street.

It was a lively, diverse, and intensely curious group. LOTS of great questions. Naturally, like all the 233 TIF Illuminations before, we broke news and revealed facts that no one had known before. No media present however, which is usually the case.

2. TIF Report for Chicago for 2025 Coming Soon!

Thanks to data whiz Will Fineberg the TIF Illumination Project will soon release our analysis for all of Chicago’s TIFs for 2025! As a “CivicNotes” subscriber, you get the headlines first!

• Number active TIFs in 2025 = 108

• Total property taxes removed by TIFs in 2025 = $1 billion

• Total spent by Chicago TIFs in 2025 = $559 million

• Total left in TIF accounts at the end of 2025 = $3.2 billion

For other numbers, such as Total $ Moved/Distributed, Total Administrative Costs, Total Finance (debt) Costs, and the GRAND TOTAL of property tax dollars that all Chicago TIFs have removed since 1986, you will have to go to www.tifreports.com and create a free account (to become a member of the TIF Illumination Project) and go the 2025 Report page. That will be available in a few days.

3. TIF Illumination #235 and #236 Coming Soon!

The TIF train keeps on chuggin’! Thanks to the West Ridge Community Organization, we will be Illuminating the TIFs of the 50^th Ward at their annual meeting on September 17^th at the Warren Park Field House. And at a date shortly to be announced, we will do a TIF Illumination for the organizers of Save Downtown Northbrook. This is all people-powered – no staff, no office, no funding! If YOU want a “TIF 101” or a TIF Illumination for your ward or city, contact tom@tifreports.com.

4. “Chicago Is Not Broke” Celebrates Ten Years

It was in July of 2016 that I published the first edition of “Chicago Is Not Broke. Funding the City We Deserve”! Despite the fact that no major media outlet reviewed the book we managed to sell and distribute 4,000 copies – including over 400 copies given to local social justice and youth leaders! I updated the book with new material and totals in 2024! The easiest way to get the book is via ISSUU – for just $15.00! Go to www.issuu.com/tomtee. I can also deliver hard copy books but only for orders of ten books or more (tom@tresser.com for details).

5. Public Banking Conference in Philadelphia on October 22-24

Super excited to announced that the Public Banking Institute, where I have the honor of serving on their National Advisory Board, is producing a national convening in Philadelphia – “Public Banking for Public Prosperity – A Declaration of Financial Independence.” This October, PBI will convene a national conference in Philadelphia bringing together leading voices in economics, banking, public policy, academia, government, community development, and public activism. The goal: to catalyze the next phase of the public banking movement at a moment when questions of economic justice and democratic resilience are reshaping the national conversation. The conference will emphasize strategic collaboration, unified action, and practical pathways for public bank adoption — building momentum for a nationwide transformation in how public money is managed and how local economies can thrive. It will be three days of solid information, strategy, collaboration, and planning. One of the speakers will be Don Morgan, CEO of the Bank of North Dakota, America’s only public bank (but not for long!). Also speaking will be Dr. Amara Enyia, Co-Executive Director of the Movement for Black Lives, and the person I picked to write the chapter on public banking in “Chicago Is Not Broke”!

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Well, dear “CivicNotes” subscribers, it’s the third Monday and so our topic is “More Power.”

You no doubt know that one of the biggest soap boxes that I love to stand on is all about the need for artists and creative professionals to lead in public life. To run for local office or help someone run. To help organize for civic power in order to direct civic agendas and shape civic budgets. After all, it’s what the Other Side has done for decades (read this for a summary).

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What do I think we can bring to America’s civic party?

I summarize our creative civic superpowers with the term POETICS.

P = Passion and Persistence to succeed

O = Out of the frame thinking, Outrageous question asking

E = Empathy, Eager to see the world through another’s Eyes

T = Truth seeking, Truth telling

I = Intrinsic value recognized and sought

C = Creative, maker, doer

S = Sharing, collaboration, ensemble building

I would like to go into each of these attributes over the next little while and I invite you send me examples of how you have used these creative civic superpowers or seen them in action!

P is for passion and persistence.

What powers the arts and creativity? Isn’t it passion and the need to do – the urge to create – the drive to make something? Passion is essential to life and it is hard to quantify and also hard to bottle or to manufacture.

What is “passion”? From an article in PsychCentral:

The word itself, ‘passion,’ derives from the Latin root ‘pati’ — which means ‘to suffer.’ The veracity in this linguistic statement lies in the fact that passion is what moves you to persevere at something despite fear, unhappiness or pain. It is the determination and motivation to push through suffering for the sake of an end goal.

The article notes the biological and neurological foundations for passion and motivation:

A recent study published in the Journal of Neuroscience has identified the part of the brain that is activated during motivated activities — the ventral striatum, in combination with the amygdala (known as the brain’s emotional center). Researchers observed that the ventral striatum was activated in proportion to how motivated a person felt: the higher the degree of motivation, the higher the activation level. So that feeling of intense creativity, or that feeling of euphoria when engaging in something that is truly meaningful to you — it is real and it is something physiological that happens within your brain. It is one of the least researched aspects of psychology, yet it has the biggest impact on our personal lives. Motivation does not simply give you the energy to work, but allows you to entirely change your perception of everything that you do. Conversely, your change in perception will start to affect the types of long-term behavior in which you engage. This follows the concept of neuroplasticity, the ability to rewire your brain using behavior. According to this prominent neuroscientific theory, you have the power to create motivation yourself, and the art of finding this passion in life lies entirely in your actions and your choice of behavior:

• Find that for which you have a natural affinity.

• Reject complacency.

• Ask the ‘why’ question.

Artists and creative professionals are purposefully and perpetually passionate about their work and their processes to make work. We persist despite having no funds, few resources, and often – insecure living conditions. The presence of passion and persistence has so many impacts and benefits.

We spread the love and share and transmit our passions. We keep on going. We arrive – that is we deliver creative works and creative experiences that transform and entertain. When people say “That’s never been done before!” or “We don’t it THAT way!” – artists shrug and continue to do – to make – to innovate – to solve – to produce new works and new ways of seeing (which feeds into my second aspect or feature of creative civic superpowers, that is “Out of the frame thinking, Outrageous question asking” – which I will cover in the next installment of this series.

Please share how you do passion and persistence!

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I don’t know about you, but I have gotten like a thousand emails and letters over the last few years from nonprofit civic organizations begging for my money to combat the actions of President Trump and his MAGA supporters.

I collect these messages and place then in a “Panic!” folder.

I will share the latest missive. It’s from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

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Merle and I just attended the fourth Borscht Belt Fest in Ellenville, New York. The two-day event is produced by the Borscht Belt Museum, which “is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Catskills resort era, and celebrating its history as a refuge from bigotry, the cradle of stand-up comedy and a cultural catalyst that changed America.” The Borscht …

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How about “bank”?

That’s right my dear “CivicNotes” subscribers, it’s the third Monday of the month, so it’s time to talk about More Public.

One way to start this conversation is to ask you how much debt you are carrying right now. Put it all together – mortgage, student load, medical debt, credit card debt = ??

We can all calculate that number. It’s likely to be high. A similar number that we really can’t get to so easily is how much debt our city, our state, our nation is holding. Just asking that question online gets all sorts of staggering responses. One return revealed that the federal government alone is holding $39.4 TRILLION in debt. And then asking the question of how much INTEREST we are paying ON that debt yields a frightening response – over $1 TRILLION in annual interest payments for federal debt.

So – think about this debt – it’s simply a way to transfer the wealth of the many into the pockets of a very few set of players. When you pay a ton of interest for, say, a student loan, you are giving Wall Street a lot of your money for the privilege or opportunity of using their money for a certain time and purpose. The same is true for the country – only we all are paying for the government’s use of debt over time.

What if we thought about debt and access to credit in a non-marketplace way – that is, NOT as a must-have byproduct of the marketplace – but, rather, as a social need or service. What if we could create an institution or program that allowed people to borrow money in order to improve their lives and there was NO onerous or ruinous interest payments FOR that service?

Welcome to the Bank of North Dakota.

Established by the government of North Dakota in 1919, it is the only public bank operating America. According to Wikipedia:

The Bank of North Dakota (BND) is a state-owned, state-run financial institution based in Bismarck, North Dakota. It is the only government-owned, general-service bank in the United States.^[2][a] It is the legal depository for all state funds in North Dakota and uses these deposits to fund development, agriculture, and small businesses. The bank was established in the early 20th century to promote agriculture, commerce, and industry in the state.^[3] It has received praise and media attention in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis^[4] and for its actions during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[4][5]According to available data, the bank has turned a profit every year since its founding.^[4][6] The BND has a favorable reputation among North Dakotans.^[4] Other states have tried to replicate the BND elsewhere but have been limited by political gridlock and the power dynamics in banking.^[7]

++Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to “CivicNotes” so you can get all of this post – which includes a link to download a chapter from my 2016 book (with a 2024 update) that covers public banking 😊!++

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Here is a recent headline from Salon, “Trump’s authoritarian project now includes science” where the latest alarming MAGA news is “MAGA political loyalists, not researchers or experts, could soon decide what counts as legitimate knowledge…Bond its ongoing efforts t…

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It’s the rare fifth Monday so this edition is devoted to news and updates.

1. TIF ILLUMINATION #233

Join me and a bunch of curious and pissed-off neighbors in Northfield on July 9 at 7pm for my 233^rd public TIF town meeting, or Illumination! Local organizer Jenn Hull has put together a group of neighbors who are determined t…

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Headline from MS Now, June 11: “FBI raids Ohio voting rights organization.” Possibly the worst news from the Trump kleptocracy…

FBI agents on Thursday raided the Cleveland offices of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a pro-democracy organization that helps register voters in that state, three people briefed on the search told MS NOW. Agents also fanned …

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After years of controversy and about $850 million, the Obama Presidential Center is about to open. The press is overflowing with mostly fawning coverage of the megaproject that gobbled up acres of Jackson Park. Here are just a few headlines:

• “I watched Obama rise from Chicago. Now his story has a home”

• “‘This will be timeless’: what art can we expect fro…

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I have been writing, lecturing, and training around nonprofit leaders need to be leaders in public life since 1991. Over the bast 15 or so years I have tried to challenge our sector – especially the arts and creative industries – to answer the challenge of the Far Right and to organize for power – especially running for local office. In a series of art…

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Being the first Monday of the month, regular readers will know I cover the beat of “More Love” – next week is “More Power” and then it’s “More Public” and the fourth Monday is a wild card post with news and updates.

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Let’s remember the traitors. Let’s remember the election deniers. Let’s remember the thieves and grifters …

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Ha. Ha. The comics and cartoonists have been calling out Trump and his MAGA fascists and science denying haters for years.

Here’s the latest horrifying headline: “Trump says he will send an ‘Election Integrity Army’ into every state for midterms” from the Independent. It stated “President Donald Trump announced Sunday that Republicans plan to dispense a large “Election Integrity Army” to every single state for the 2026 midterms – invoking his debunked claims that the United States does not have fair elections.”

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I want to share a resource offered up by the amazing National Public Housing Museum, located right here in Chicago.

36 Qu…

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Have you been following the news about the negotiations for the new Bears stadium? I have and it’s starting to get on my last nerve.

Here’s a typical headline “Bears stadium deal with Illinois gaining momentum as deadline nears” from Bears Wire. They report:

The Chicago Bears’ stadium saga continues to roll on well into April with the team still working to determine the location for their next home. Indiana has put all their pieces into place and is ready to go with their Wolf Lake site in Hammond, while Illinois continues to slowly move their legislation along down in Springfield to try and pass the needed megaprojects bill to ensure tax certainty. But that may be picking up steam with the state getting close to passing the bill.

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