Other Taxes
Special Service Area
BOMA/Chicago is a proponent of revising the leadership model and enabling legislation of Special Service Areas (SSAs) in the City of Chicago. We believe that stakeholders, not political appointees, should be the primary decision makers when it comes to new and existing SSAs. BOMA/Chicago also believes that SSAs must have a clearly established purpose to fund a legitimately “special service” and not be used to shift baseline government services from the general property tax onto the special assessment. They must also be geographically concise and practical in reference to the service they are intended to fund.
Tax Increment Financing
BOMA/Chicago believes that there is a need to reign in the use of TIF (tax increment financing) programs in the City of Chicago; however, a properly executed TIF program could be useful in providing needed incentive to encourage investment where obsolescence and deterioration have made improvements necessary to create economic development and sustain commercial viability. BOMA/Chicago also believes that TIFs need to more transparent to taxpayers, and that the City of Chicago must develop a strategy for using TIF dollars within the overall city budget.