Ben Joravsky Throws Lifeline to Chicago Taxpayers Drowning in $400 Million TIF Slush Fund
In the recent movie "Rescue Dawn," a U.S. fighter pilot struggles to survive after being shot down on a mission over Laos during the Vietnam War. In present-day Chicago, Ben Joravsky, a columnist for the Chicago Reader, jokes that his experience is similar—only instead of battling in the jungles of Laos, Joravsky is fighting to save apathetic Chicago citizens from a wildly corrupt Chicago city government.
Nevertheless, both are war zones.
Joravsky specializes in writing about TIFs, or tax-increment-financing districts. If you're unfamiliar with TIFs, you're not alone: many citizens find the process confusing, but worse yet, many just don't care. However, the time for understanding is now—because in the city of Chicago alone, there are 153 TIFs currently open, which collect more than $400 million per year in property taxes (roughly 10 percent of your annual tax bill)—and a new one is proposed every month.
"At the pace they're going, they could put every corner of the city under a TIF," Joravsky said.
Here are the basics: to generate property taxes, the government applies a tax rate to a property's value. When the government creates a TIF district—which, by law, is supposed to be drawn in blighted areas that wouldn't get any development if not for the TIF—they freeze all property value amounts in that area. TIFs are active for 23 years—so during that time, the taxes generated from the frozen property value go to the regular tax-collecting government bodies, while tax dollars above that amount (which can be generated by increasing property values on a whim) are funneled into a TIF fund to supposedly pay for redevelopments in that area.
That's the clinical version.
What really happens is this: under the pretense of "eradicating blight," elected officials—in Chicago's case, Mayor Daley and the City Council—have a giant slush fund to use in funding their pet projects. In short, as Joravsky put it, TIFs are one big "scam."
"We effectively have a secret, hidden government that raises taxes—TIFS don't show up on any tax bill or budget—and runs the money without any oversight," Joravsky said.
As if that isn't bad enough, TIFs are often connected with eminent domain abuse because they have built-in eminent domain power. Once the government has drawn a TIF district, they "have the right" to take any property within it.
"Once you've created a TIF, you've sent a signal that anything within that district can be seized by the city," Joravsky said.
That's a lot of bad news. The good news is that Joravsky is getting the word out about TIFs.
Since 1990, he has written as a staff writer for the Chicago Reader, which was founded in the 1960s as an underground alternative newspaper. Since then, the Reader has grown into a successful business that prizes freedom of thought and fearless journalism.
In the beginning of his employment at the Reader, Joravsky wrote a weekly column, "Neighborhood News," that featured different stories from the city—interesting characters, conflicts, and so on. In the process of producing this column, Joravsky got a firsthand education about how the city government works—and how TIFs work.
"I quickly discovered there is no more important story than TIFs in the city, and no more under-reported," Joravsky said.
In 2004, the Reader discontinued the "Neighborhood News" column so Joravsky could write his personal take on these issues. At that point, he began focusing more on property rights and taxes, then TIFs.
Amid his extensive TIF coverage, Joravsky discovered another problem in defeating corruption in Chicago: citizen apathy. No matter how corrupt the city government is, citizens turn their heads, assuming every city has this problem. This complacency breeds a growing tolerance of inefficiency, corruption, and waste. And at the end of the day, if their city looks beautiful, their transportation system is marginally reliable, and their trash is picked up, citizens can be indifferent to everything else.
"People really only take action when they're directly affected, when they get outraged," Joravsky said. "To really make change in Chicago, masses of people have to be outraged and rebel. At some point, the public will say, 'enough.' We just haven't reached that point yet."
Joravsky, however, is doing his part by educating readers about TIFs and exposing the corruption associated with them.
"The joy I get from writing these stories is that at least I know what's going on and so do the people who read my column," he said. "They'll have the knowledge. That's the first step."
He continues, "Everyone has their role. I'm not an activist; I've never been comfortable standing on a corner distributing literature or joining a march."
For those still trying to find their role, Joravsky advises to understand how your government works, to show up at meetings or hearings, to just speak out.
Chicago citizens should be glad Joravsky is doing just that—and join him.
The tagline of "Rescue Dawn" invites movie-goers to "experience the story of one man's fight for freedom." Maybe Joravsky's efforts in Chicago aren't all that different after all...
Here's to him.
To view Ben Joravsky's extensive archive of TIF articles at the Chicago Reader, click here.
