I am thrilled to announced that my book on the No Games Chicago campaign from 2009 is now on sale from Routledge Press! Use this link (feel free to share widely)-> www.tinyurl.com/Get-NGC-book. It’s a dramatic story with international intrigue, a few Davids going after many Goliaths, daring tactics, civic thuggery, attempted bribes, and a real-life spy! Although the organizing took place in 2009, the lessons learned and unlearned are striking for Chicago and the rest of the country. For one thing, three white billionaire families who each own a sports team are all angling for BILLIONS of public dollars to build new stadiums! Sound familiar? And, across the USA, another eight cities are proposing massive public subsidies for stadiums – over $10 billion for those places. The price tag for Chicago’s greedy team owners has been estimated to be at least $3 billion and perhaps DOUBLE that! Buy the book. Sign the petition demanding NO PUBLIC SUBSIDIES for stadiums.
Read my op-ed from Crain’s Chicago Business from July 29, 2024, “Let the billionaire owners pay for their teams’ stadiums themselves.”
“I applaud Tom Tresser for his dedication to public service and civic engagement – especially through his TIF Illumination Project. Tresser has been diligently investigating TIFs for over ten years and doing public meetings to share findings. I attended his well-attended workshop that covered TIFs of Woodstock a few years ago and all my misgivings about TIFS were confirmed. My familiarity with Tax Increment Financing goes back to the 1970’s when I was a member of the Illinois House of Representatives and the TIF legislation was approved. I am so happy I voted against that legislation. It had all the hallmarks of massive grabs of taxpayers’ money. And that’s how it turned out. I have been following TIFs ever since, especially the ones that cost me higher taxes so developers can be subsidized by these municipal slush funds. The process is so secretive, yet so costly to everyone not in the TIF districts. The type of light that Tom has focused on this massive scam needs to continue and be spread nationwide. TIFs are corrupt and need to be abolished. Tresser is the only civic player I know of who is on top of the TIF scheme.” – 
