Politics & Government

UPDATE: TIF Tiff Ends

Government agencies will meet Tuesday to announce settlement agreement.

Update: The elected boards of the Village of Oak Park, Oak Park Elementary School District 97 and Oak Park River Forest Community High School District 200 voted to approve the settlement agreement at Tuesday's meeting. The vote was 19-1, with District 200 Trustee Sharon Patchak-Layman opposing the measure and Oak Park Trustee Bob Tucker absent. 

In her opposition, Patchak-Layman offered an impassioned plea against tax increment finances (TIF) funding. 

"The problem with TIFS is that those school dollars are diverted from services to something called 'economic development,'" she said. "I do not believe that school tax dollars should be used for anything but providing an educational program to students."

Find out what's happening in Oak Park-River Forestwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Original story: A years long tussle between the Village of Oak Park and its school districts over the distribution of millions of dollars in tax increment financing appears to be coming to an end Tuesday.

So far, officials from all three agencies are mum on the details but have promised to release more information at a special "tri-board" public meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at , 416 S. Ridgeland Ave. The agenda is attached as a PDF. 

Find out what's happening in Oak Park-River Forestwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to Oak Leaves, Oak Park-River Forest Community High School District 200 filed a lawsuit in February 2010, alleging that the Village of Oak Park owes the school district $3.3 million in TIF money based on a 2003 agreement between the government agencies:

The village has disputed the amount and offered to pay about half. But District 200 officials refused. District 97 was brought into the lawsuit because they were part of the orginal [sic] agreement.

The high school was seeking more than $2 million from the village, Wednesday Journal has reported. Earlier this year, that paper tallied up the legal bills for the ongoing fight.

The total? $650,000, "including some $20,000 for a $500-an-hour mediator they've been seeing outside of court."


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