The Illinois department of revenue is trying to make the state’s TIF districts more transparent with the more than one billion of taxpayer money that they receive.

TIF, or tax increment financing districts are supposed to be economically depressed areas, and once they get the TIF status, they keep it for 23 years.  The areas that become declared TIFs by the municipality then get a portion of the property tax revenue collected.

One reason given as to why the 970 Illinois TIF districts need to be more transparent is that they take money from the other programs that the taxpayers think their property tax is funding, like education.  Kankakee county alone gave $5.5 million of property tax revenue to its TIF districts.

Officials say that the reason they don’t want to provide detailed information on TIF districts and their financing is that it would be too difficult and take too long to find the data.

Click link below: “Daily Journal” to read the article.

Lawmakers want TIF information easier to access

08/27/2008, 10:00 am

By Andrea Zelinski-Springfield Bureau