Category Archives: Community

TIF Illumination On WVON March 23

Greenpreneuer TIF Illuminators Tom Tresser and Bea Jasper (organizer of the Englewood TIF Town Meeting) will be on “The GreenPreneur Show” on WVON on Saturday night, March 23, from 5-6pm. Listen live here. The call in number is 773-591-1690. Let’s talk TIFs on the South Side. Our next TIF Town Meeting is in South Shore on March 30. Connect with the TIF Illumination Project.

Privatization Deal Keeps On Giving (To Morgan Stanley)

AquaFrom the Chicago Sun-Times: “Chicago taxpayers have been hit with a $57.8 million ruling in favor of the private company that runs four city-owned, downtown parking garages — stuck with that bill because former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s administration mistakenly allowed a competing garage to open nearby, according to documents obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has 90 business days to appeal the Feb. 25 decision by a panel of independent arbitrators regarding Chicago Loop Parking LLC’s claim that City Hall violated the terms of its 99-year garage-privatization deal by subsequently approving plans for a garage in the 82-story Aqua building, about a block from the company’s nearest garage.”

Washington Park TIF Town Meeting Packed!

I presented on the six TIFs in the 20th Ward at the Washington Park TIF Town Meeting. Wow. It was packed. Cliff Kelley was the emcee and the attendees had LOTS of questions. We are on to something with the TIF Illumination Project! Below are the presentations plus audio (56 minutes).

Watch Feb 12 TIF Town Meeting

Thanks to the great folks at CAN-TV you can watch the February 12 TIF Town Meeting produced by The Tax Integrity and Fairness Alliance at the Chopin Theater (1  hour, 22 minutes). View the media coverage and my presentation materials on the impacts of the 12 TIFs inside the 27th Ward here.

Sound Off At TIF Town Meeting

A powerful portable public address megaphone or bullhorn.I’ll be presenting at a community town meeting on TIFs on February 12 at the Chopin Theater! Find out the details and RSVP on Facebook.

Featured Speakers:

At the end of 2011 there was $1.39 billion left in TIF bank accounts, yet the City claimed a budget deficit of $636 million at the start of 2012. 30% of Chicago is a TIF district!

The Tax Integrity and Fairness Alliance is hosting a Town Meeting to spread knowledge and demand change on Tuesday, February 12th from 7-9pm, at the Chopin Theatre, 1543 West Division.

Featured Breakout Groups: Citizen Investigation, “Become a TIF Illuminator” with Tom Tresser. Participatory Budgeting, “Design Your Own Utopia” with Sharon Post of Chicago Political Economy Group. “Grassroots Organizing,” with Steven Serikaku, retired CTU teacher and PDA-IL activist. Speak up. Bring your questions!

Download a flier = TIF Town Meeting flyer / Download the press release = TIF Town Hall press release

 

We Will Pay More For Infrastructure

From Reuters MuniLand Service, reported by Cate Long:

Two major American cities are embarking on large capital programs, but in very different ways. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has a $1.8 billion, five-year plan that he will fund with municipal bonds, while Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is trying to push a $7 billion plan, which will be paid for by private investors, through the city council. It would be hard to find to two more dissimilar approaches to rebuilding America’s urban infrastructure or two more different lists of who will reap the monetary benefit of the improvements.

Boston approaches its infrastructure needs with a rolling five-year schedule of projects that is updated on an annual basis. This allows for more controlled expensing and planning. In contrast, Chicago’s Emanuel announced his infrastructure privatization plan in January with very few details and buy-in only from the private investors who will benefit from their involvement. The Chicago proposal gives control of infrastructure decisions to a panel of four private citizens and one city council member with no ability for the city council to have oversight on projects and contracts. Chicago has a terrible history of leaving taxpayer money on the table in its privatization efforts. In 2008 the city’s parking meters were leased out to private investors for a tiny sum

We Need To Upgrade US Education

From the Center for American Progress comes a new study, “The Competition That Really Matters: Comparing U.S., Chinese and Indian Investments in the Next Generation Workforce.” Download summary (12 pages) = The Competition That_Really_Matters-summary.

“To position the United States for the future, substantial investments are needed in research, infrastructure, and education. The most important of these areas to address is education. Why? Because as this report shows, the overwhelming economic evidence points to education—and human capital investments, generally—as the key drivers of economic competitiveness in the long term.”

Are you hearing anything like this in the current flurry of ads around the Presidential race?

Tom Has A Big Idea

The August issue of “Chicago Magazine” has a feature on how to make Chicago even better.  They selected six Big Ideas. Mine was #5. It’s about establishing a public bank for Illinois.

“THE RATIONALE: A state bank could help Illinois reduce its budget deficit and make more credit available, thereby boosting the economy.

THE PROPONENT: Tom Tresser, cofounder of Illinois Citizens for Public Banking and a former teacher who coorganized the opposition to the 2016 Olympics

HE SAYS: “Illinois has more red ink than any state but California. It owes $34 billion in principal on its bonds; pension debt stands at $76 billion, the highest in the nation; and it pays a ton in bond interest and fees, not just because it has a poor credit rating but also because it also uses big out-of-state banks and investment firms to do the deals.

“Contrast that with North Dakota. Since the economic downturn began in 2008, North Dakota has had a budget surplus every year. It has no state debt, excellent credit, and the country’s lowest unemployment rate [3 percent]. While student loans in Illinois carry interest of 8 to 12 percent, in North Dakota it’s 4 percent.” Read the full story.

Tom’s Talk About (and Prototype of) The Gift Economy

I presented at TEDxIIT on Saturday, April 14, on the south side campus of IIT. I talked about The Gift Economy and created one among the attendees. 82 of the 100 attendees actually offered something to their fellow attendees!

Here is the presentation:

Click on the player below to listen and click on the Slideshare viewer to watch the presentation.

View more PowerPoint from Thomas Tresser
You can watch all the presentations here – http://mypages.iit.edu/~tedxiit/video2012.html