10-30-24 TifsTaxes Orland Park presentation Part 1

10-30-24 TifsTaxes Orland Park presentation Part 1

TIF expert Tom Tresser presents a frightening overview of the impact TIFs have on property tax owners including in Orland Park during a presentation made on Oct. 30, 2024.

TIFs redirect property taxes away from the governments funded by property tax homeowners and businesses who end up paying more than 15 percent in higher property taxes as a consequence during the 23 to 34 year life of a TIF (Tax Increment Financing district).

Fore more details on the TIFs in Orland Park, visit:

  / tifstaxesorlandpark  

Thank you to the Orland Park residents who came out Wednesday night to listen to a presentation on the Orland Park TIFs that Mayor Keith Pekau refuses to provide.

The video provides an overview of TIFs, and then a focus on the Orland Park TIFs.

The meeting was opened by Mohammed Jaber, and then the presentation was made by Tom Tresser, a recognized authority on TIFs.

Here are some of the shocking highlights:

1 - The Triangle TIF has taken more than $15.6 million from the taxpayers (between 2004 and 2023) that would have gone to off-set property taxes (with $1.7 million in expenses just from 2020 and $1.2 million of that for unitemized "debt service.")

2 - The Triangle TIF, which has taken $15.6 million from property tax payers, (with $1.87 taken in 2022 and 1.52 takewn in 2023). But worse, the TIF is an astonishing $27 million in debt, a debt that is unaccounted for. How was it spent? That is $47 million in property tax money that is unaccounted for that would have gone to off-set property taxes but instead is being used for unknown spending.

3 - Mayor Pekau has failed not only to file the Village FInancial Audits for 2022 and 2023, but he has ALSO failed to file the TIF audits for the Triangle TIF for 2021, 2022 and 2023.

4 - TIF funding is collected from property taxes in the TIF district. But, after the base (1st year) the property taxes DO NOT GO to fund local government. They are put in a special fund controlled by the mayor and spent anyway he wants. And with no disclosure, that spending becomes concerning.

5 - Money collected in TIFs is often accumulated in an account controlled by the mayor. If the TIF did not exist, property taxes on our homes would decrease 15 percent.

6 - There are 3 NEW TIFs being considered by the mayor. One is the proposed Andrew site TIF that Pekau asserts is far from being a proposal, but that has a detailed development plan to build more than 500 homes.

All of the property taxes on those NEW homes will go to the Mayor's controlled TIF fund INSTEAD OF GOING to cover the costs 500 new homes will place on local governments like schools for a minimum 23 year period and as much as 34 years. The biggest losers in Orland Park are our students and schools, which receive 67 percent all property taxes collected in Orland Park. The TIF will redirect all property taxes away from the schools, which will have to absorb more students from those homes.

7 - Developers are among the biggest benefactors of a TIF district. The developers involved have been among the biggest donors to Mayor Pekau's political campaign.

8 - The purpose of a TIF is to address a "Blighted Area" in a community, meaning that developers cannot attract retail businesses or residential homes to the area. None of the areas targeted for TIFs in affluent Orland Park are blighted.

TIF specialist Tom Tresser said at the meeting he has never seen a TIF like the one in Orland Park and has NEVER heard of a TIF having any deficit, let alone $27 million.

"Creating three new TIFs in a town that has not been reporting its required financial data for THREE years is scary!" Tresser told the attendees.
Watch the video presentation. And remember, your property taxes would be on average 15 percent less if developers were forced to their own developments without using public funds taken from TIFs.