Progress Illinois

More than 150 women’s, worker and civil rights organizations sent a letter to members of the U.S. House of Representatives Monday urging them to reject the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013.

The measure, H.R. 1406, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Martha Roby (R, AL-2), is expected to go up for a full House vote Wednesday.

Opponents of the bill, which has 168 Republican cosponsors, say it is an empty promise that would do more harm than good for working families.

“The very fact that this is entitled the Working Families Flexibility Act is a joke,” U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards, a Democrat from Maryland, said on a conference call with reporters Monday. “It’s a lot of flexibility for employers and zero flexibility for working families. In fact, you could call it the ‘working families to death act,’ because that’s what would result.”

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Property taxpayers in Englewood were furious upon learning at a town hall meeting Saturday that their tax dollars had contributed at least $44 million to the Englewood Neighborhood Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District since it rolled out in 2001. According to data from the CivicLab's TIF Illumination Project, some $44 million of taxpayer dollars had funneled to the TIF district between 2001 and 2011.

In 2011 alone, the TIF district siphoned $5 million from property taxpayers in the area, which would have normally gone to local units of government such as schools and parks, according to the CivicLab. 

“The original concept is that (TIFs are) designed to have an impact on blighted areas, and just looking out the window, we know that a blighted area is all around us,” CivicLab's Bill Drew said at the TIF discussion, held at the Chicago Public Library's Hiram Kelly Branch.  Read more »