August 04, 2010
A tax increment financing (TIF) transparency bill (Public Act 096-1335) passed by the Illinois legislature in May and signed into law by Governor Pat Quinn on July 27 includes a number of long-standing Civic Federation recommendations detailed in the Federation’s 2007 TIF report:
- Each TIF will require a 10-year status report. The county or municipality that created the TIF would be required to publish a status report that includes detailed financial data.
- Public hearings on 10-year status reports must be held with within 30 days of their release, with 20 days’ public notice.
- The annual budget of the county or municipality must include the amount of revenue generated from TIF districts by source as well as all TIF expenditures made.
- Municipalities must submit TIF data to the State Comptroller and to overlapping taxing bodies in an electronic format. This data must now include a list of all intergovernmental agreements in effect during that fiscal year to which the municipality is a party, and an accounting of any moneys transferred during the year pursuant to those agreements.
- The State Comptroller must post TIF information submitted by municipalities within 45 days of receiving to its website. The Comptroller must also post a list of municipalities not in compliance with the new rules.
The Civic Federation commends the sponsors of SB 3152, Senator Terry Link, Senator Christine Radogno, Representative Paul Froehlich, and Representative David Miller, for their leadership on this important transparency measure and praises Governor Quinn for signing the bill into law.