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Sneak Preview: Democratizing Tax Increment Financing Funds
June 29, 2015 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm CDT
FreeMonday, June 29, 2015 from 10am-12pm
Light refreshments will be served.
Hosted by:
Robert R. McCormick Foundation
205 N Michigan Ave #4300
Lake View Room
In 2014 Chicago was the site of the country’s first participatory budgeting (PB) process to allocate tax increment financing (TIF) funds. The community organization Blocks Together worked with residents and businesses in the neighborhood of West Humboldt Park to engage residents in a pilot PB process to directly decide how to spend $2 million in TIF funds for projects that might never have received funding through the usual channels. This process resulted in deep engagement of residents, and five community-developed projects will be implemented over the next few years.
As part of this historic process, Blocks Together, UIC’s Great Cities Institute and the Participatory Budgeting Project are developing a tool kit that will provide information, resources, and lessons learned from using PB with TIF funds. They invite you to this sneak preview to share their experiences and lessons learned from the pilot process.
This community briefing and the tool kit was made possible by the generous support of the UIC Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy. Participatory budgeting in Chicago is made possible by the generous support of The Robert R. McCormick Foundation, The Crown Family, and UIC’s Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement.
