The setup: During the special Committee of the Whole meeting of Monday evening, DeKalb council members were discussing with staff a proposed budget reduction in 2018 for the street improvement program in our two TIF districts, specifically a staff recommendation to cut in half the usual $1 million budgeted for streets in the TIFs. During…
Category: TIF
Where the city’s interest in Annie Glidden North comes from
***Update 8/12*** Added city manager Anne Marie Gaura and fixed clarity issues. As our city council prepares to discuss a revitalization plan proposal for the Annie Glidden North (AGN) section of DeKalb, we should be aware of the possibility of a “done deal” already worked out by NIU and private interests, promoted by city staff…
More Reasons to Put the Brakes on the STEAM Center Project
Several of DeKalb’s city council members balked at making financial or other commitments to the STEAM center project until they have in hand a thorough analysis of its most important source of funding, the soon-to-be-retired Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts. Even the most worthy projects are subject to resource limitations, so a peek into the…
This is why you didn’t even know DeKalb failed to spend streets allocations on streets
In my last post, I explored how Tax Increment Financing (TIF) dollars for FY2016 were budgeted versus actual spending. This time I hope to explain the discrepancies, at least partially. TIF districts have their own budgets in their own funds that are separate from the city’s general operating fund called the General Fund. DeKalb currently…
Did They Lie about How They Spent TIF?
City of DeKalb budgeted $1 million for street reconstruction out of its FY2016 Central Area TIF District 1 budget, but actually spent less than $75,000 that year for all street work in the district, even though one official budget document indicates much more spending than that. Here are the facts: FY2016 Adopted TIF 1 Budget:…
DeKalb’s Annual TIF Meetings are Finally Scheduled
***Update 3/28: I’m hearing that some are having trouble with the links to the reports, so here’s an alternative way to get at them: 1. Go to the Comptroller’s Local Government Division page, and select the menu item that reads, “Upload TIF Reports.” 2. Scroll down to the bottom of the “Upload TIF” menu list…
Barb City Action Committee & TIF
There are honest people of good faith who belong to the Barb City Action Committee. There really are. However, it makes good sense to try to tease out the motives for any organized political action, especially one that launched itself out of nowhere and appears to have “shadow” members as well. Recently I donned my…
Local EAV and TIF Performance
DeKalb County has placed online a variety of property tax information at DeKalbCounty.org. Among the reports are breakdowns of Equalized Assessment Value (EAV) by type of zoning, which include farm, residential, commercial, industrial, and railroad properties. In City of DeKalb, the two top property tax-producing categories are residential and commercial. You can see below that…
College Town Partners is All About TIF
Yes, “is.” Emails obtained by Michael and Misty Haji-Sheikh of Preserve Our Neighborhoods show that even though collaborators ultimately rejected formal incorporation of College Town Partners in May 2014, the intention remained to suck sweet, sweet tax dollars out of City of DeKalb via Tax Increment Financing (not even getting into NIU and use of…
Retail on the Bottom
David Patzelt of Shodeen Group, LLC, sent a nice thank-you letter to the DeKalb city manager for attending a meeting between Shodeen principals and city officials in the matter of Shodeen’s latest project proposal. The letter was included in the agenda packet for Wednesday’s meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission. It outlines Shodeen’s arguments…