Tax Increment Financing is a tool used to encourage economic growth in blighted, decaying, and underserved areas. TIF can be used for infrastructure and other community-improvement projects. It can also be used to incentivize private investment where public investment is needed to reduce the extra cost and mitigate risk that private development faces when investigating in such areas. TIF is able to do this with without increasing taxes or reducing other necessary services.
TIF enables local taxing bodies to make a joint investment in the development or redevelopment of an area, with the intent that any short-term gains be reinvested and leveraged so that all taxing bodies receive larger financial gains in the future.
TIF eligible costs include infrastructure such as new roads, sewer, and water. The Illinois TIF Act generally authorizes that TIF funds may be used for: