The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy recently released Rethinking Property Tax Incentives for Business , a report that analyzes the effectiveness of economic development incentives such as property tax abatements and tax increment financing (TIF).  The report outlines several findings, including that the proliferation of property tax abatements has reduced their effect on economic... Read More

The long-awaited transportation reauthorization bill Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21 st Century Act (MAP-21) passed the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives on June 29, 2012.  The full text and summary document of the conference report are available on-line.  The following Policy Update details some of the specific programmatic and policy areas of the bill and... Read More

Late on Wednesday, June 27, 2012, top congressional negotiators announced they had reached an agreement to reauthorize and finance federal transportation programs through September 2014.  The conference report was filed early in the morning on Thursday, June 28, 2012; the full text and a summary document are available on-line.  According to an article from the Hill, the... Read More

The U.S. Census recently released 2011 population and housing unit estimates by county. CMAP analyzed the regional changes between the 2000 to 2010 census data in a prior set of blogs on changes in housing unit counts and tenure , housing unit vacancy , change in the senior population , and changes in the Latino population . The regional trends in population and housing unit change... Read More

Local news coverage this week has highlighted how difficult it can be to understand the process of assessing property taxes.  The Chicago Tribune and Crain's Chicago Business both looked at the issue as it pertains to Cook County, and the County Clerk issued a tax rate report with details about the assessments in Cook.  Earlier this year, a Regional Tax Policy Task Force... Read More