{"id":8368,"date":"2015-02-24T23:46:56","date_gmt":"2015-02-25T05:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=8368"},"modified":"2015-02-25T14:43:40","modified_gmt":"2015-02-25T20:43:40","slug":"englewood-rumbles-for-tif-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/englewood-rumbles-for-tif-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Englewood rumbles for TIF reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Meredith Wilson<\/p>\n

Voters\u00a0in the 30th<\/sup> precinct in Englewood on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a ballot initiative urging\u00a0citizen oversight for how tax increment financing\u00a0\u00a0dollars are used \u00a0in their district.<\/p>\n

Asiaha Butler, president of the Resident Association of Greater Englewood<\/a>, said the non-binding initiative in the 30th precinct was a \u201csoft launch\u201d of a wider campaign for reform of the special financing program throughout the 16th ward.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see that the voters actually agreed that we should have a council confirms what we already thought as an association,\u201d Butler said. \u201cNow we can really work towards that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over 85 percent of residents voted for the initiative. The Englewood Neighborhood TIF District has generated $32.6 million in incremental property tax revenue from 2001 to\u00a02011, according to a city report<\/a> published in 2013. Residents have no mechanism to\u00a0to decide where those funds go.<\/p>\n

TIF-funded projects often begin with a developer, according to Tom Tesser, co-founder of the Civic Lab<\/a>, a research group. The developer pitches\u00a0a project to a number of city commissions, and finally to the mayor and city council for approval, leaving residents out of the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of what happened with the Whole Foods,\u201d Butler said. \u201cWe were told after that $10 million was being taken out of the Englewood Mall TIF fund.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Tuesday’s positive vote, Butler believes the process will change. \u201cThe need is really so that the residents who are actually paying will have a say and help develop plans for how the money is being spent. They\u2019re paying into the fund for 23 years, they should have some say in how it\u2019s spent,\u201d she\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

Butler said that the next step after a \u201cgreat small victory\u201d is to focus on the community and the next alderman, which will be decided in an April 7 runoff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will up our ground game\u2026we need to let it be known it was on the ballot, and whoever\u2019s in office, have a civil conversation with them on how to get it done. If it\u2019s not done in an easy way, we might have to go a different route. It\u2019s not something we mind doing,\u201d Butler said.<\/p>\n

Butler and the residential association pushed to get the initiative on the ballot. She described the effort as a campaign to introduce the issue to the community and educate residents.<\/p>\n

With about\u00a090 percent of precincts reporting, it appeared that the 16th<\/sup> Ward aldermanic race will go to a runoff between former 15th<\/sup> Ward Alderman Toni Foulkes and Stephanie Coleman, the daughter of former 16th<\/sup> Ward Alderman Shirley Coleman. Coleman and Foulkes will run for JoAnn Thompson\u2019s seat, which was left open after she died of heart failure Feb. 9.<\/p>\n

The runoff elections will take place April 7. Regardless of who wins, Butler thinks there\u2019s a very good chance of forming a resident advisory council to oversee the Englewood Neighborhood TIF District.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to hold their feet to the fire. R.A.G.E has always been an association known to hold people accountable,\u201d Butler said.<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Residents of Ward 16th Precinct 30 were the only voters asked about tax increment funding on their election ballot. \u00a0(Meredith Wilson\/Medill)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Meredith Wilson Voters\u00a0in the 30th precinct in Englewood on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a ballot initiative urging\u00a0citizen oversight for how tax increment financing\u00a0\u00a0dollars are used \u00a0in their district. Asiaha Butler, president of the Resident Association of Greater Englewood, said the non-binding initiative in the 30th precinct was a \u201csoft launch\u201d of a wider campaign for reform […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":8373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[321],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-election2015"],"yoast_head":"\nEnglewood rumbles for TIF reform - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/englewood-rumbles-for-tif-reform\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Englewood rumbles for TIF reform - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By\u00a0Meredith Wilson Voters\u00a0in the 30th precinct in Englewood on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a ballot initiative urging\u00a0citizen oversight for how tax increment financing\u00a0\u00a0dollars are used \u00a0in their district. Asiaha Butler, president of the Resident Association of Greater Englewood, said the non-binding initiative in the 30th precinct was a \u201csoft launch\u201d of a wider campaign for reform […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/englewood-rumbles-for-tif-reform\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-25T05:46:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-02-25T20:43:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/02\/2015-02-24-16.25.01.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2592\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1936\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"meredithwilson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"meredithwilson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/englewood-rumbles-for-tif-reform\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/englewood-rumbles-for-tif-reform\/\",\"name\":\"Englewood rumbles for TIF reform - Medill Reports Chicago\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/englewood-rumbles-for-tif-reform\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/englewood-rumbles-for-tif-reform\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/02\/2015-02-24-16.25.01.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-25T05:46:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-02-25T20:43:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/be21094b5921ea3da405f001d23c7537\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/englewood-rumbles-for-tif-reform\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/englewood-rumbles-for-tif-reform\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/englewood-rumbles-for-tif-reform\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/02\/2015-02-24-16.25.01.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/02\/2015-02-24-16.25.01.jpg\",\"width\":2592,\"height\":1936,\"caption\":\"Residents of the 30th precinct in Englewood vote in the 2015 Chicago elections. 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