By: Diane Benjamin
The Town of Normal has FOUR TIF districts as of 2011: (the latest info on the comptroller’s website)
The City of Bloomington has TWO as of 2011 and wants another one to fund a downtown hotel:
Why isn’t the information listed more current than 2011? Maybe government doesn’t want you to know how much money cities are keeping and not sharing with other governmental units – like schools.
TIF districts were designed to be a tool for economic development. In other words, cities get to pick winners and losers depending on where they think economic development should take place.
Normal is an excellent example of how TIF’s work. With borrowed money they spearheaded redevelopment in downtown, sorry Uptown. Property values increased because Normal bought properties way over the assessed value and new construction raised values more. Normal collects more revenue because of increased property values and uses that money to pay interest and principle on what they borrowed to redevelop. The TOTAL increase in property tax realized is kept by the Town for the life of the TIF – which could be decades. Every other taxing body sees no increased revenue, check your property tax bill. Since Normal has 4 TIF districts that cover a large part of Normal, Unit 5 isn’t seeing any additional dollars.
Bloomington’s documents have more details, especially on downtown spending. Millions of dollars, both public and private, have poured into redevelopment since 1986 when it was established. District 87 has seen no benefit from increased property values, if they exist, since all that money went to the TIF for the City to spend however they wanted. Some of the money was spent on infrastructure, but grants to property owners were given too.
In order to form a TIF, all the other taxing bodies have to agree to let the cities keep the increased property taxes if they occur. Instead of raising taxes on everybody else, these bodies need to tell Bloomington and Normal: NO More TIF’s
Government’s job is not creating economic development, it’s to promote an environment where economic activity can occur through the private sector. Normal still owes over $80,000,000 and is planning to spend $60,000,000 more on the Uptown area. They plan to use TIF’s to pay for it. Unit 5 is already crying for money, why didn’t they oppose the TIF’s? Is expanding Uptown better than funded schools?
The letter below was obtained under FOIA from Arcola township. Townships, like schools, don’t see any revenue increases. Their frustration with TIF’s is obvious. (click to enlarge it)
Who are “all the other taxing bodies” that agree to let the town of Normal keep their money by creating TIF districts?
The other taxing bodies (i.e. schools) don’t oppose TIFs because the municipality can adjust for the revenue loss to make the school whole via TIF qualified projects – so they are not out any money. I don’t know if that’s what is going on in BloNo, but in Pontiac that’s what I did. Our schools didn’t lose one dime.
Look at your property tax bill – it contains a long list.
The date on the TIF application for Market Square and Downtown are from 1986. If the TIF grant money has been available since 1986, what has it been used for?
Click on the link – they filed detailed reports that are easy to read.
Streetscape, sidewalk, statue base and Fuller fasade–hardly any improvement to make an impact. I’ve lived in Bloomington since the early nineties and have seen little or no improvement in Downtown Bloomington.
I don’t recall the details of the Heyworth TIF about 10 years ago between the city and the school board who sued and won. I guess won if you want to call it that. No telling what was spent on lawyers fees and was it really worth it? Evidently it was to the school district.
Here is one google find:
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-11610105.html
I can’t remember if that went to the state Supreme Court or not.
The downtowns of B-N are both money pits!
The mayors of B-N are both arm pits.
“Streetscape, sidewalk, statue base and Fuller fasade–hardly any improvement to make an impact. I’ve lived in Bloomington since the early nineties and have seen little or no improvement in Downtown Bloomington.”
I’ve lived here since the early 60’s and in the late 60’s just about everyone headed east and never came back. A few that stayed finally closed their doors.
The only improvements that I ever saw was in the early 80’s I think it was when numerous buildings burned (coincidence?) and they had to be removed. The courthouse became a museum. Other than that not much else other than a few individuals remodeling some buildings.
I don’t think Tiffany’s or Nordstrom’s will be locating there anytime soon.
I wonder how long Commerce Bank will keep their drive-up windows open. Some banks are now closing branches to cut expenses.
A bigger question is why is the city government even involved in this anyhow. It certainly does not qualify as a public need. It was a BIG mistake to build that white elephant coliseum especially there.
This was posted as a comment:
“FYI: The City has a case in front of the Appellate Court right now and their argument is the City Manager does not have a fiduciary duty to the tax-payers of Bloomington.
I guess they are not familiar with the Illinois Municipal Code”
on the bird cage paper website.
http://www.pantagraph.com/news/opinion/mailbag/hales-renner-wrong-about-privatizing-garbage/article_0732a5fd-1816-51c3-bad9-aa860fd00ec8.html
I wonder if there is any truth to this and if so I wonder what it is about.
Don’t know, I’m sure something is available on-line. The City spends a fortune on legal fees, this might be why. I will see what I can find.