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TIF Expert and author Tom Tresser discusses the hazards of a TIF DIstrict and how it applies to Orland Park taxpayers

Katsenes and Pekau are angry that I blew the whistle on their TIF district threat to taxpayers

Posted on September 4, 2024April 28, 2025 By Ray Hanania No Comments on Katsenes and Pekau are angry that I blew the whistle on their TIF district threat to taxpayers
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Katsenes and Pekau are angry that I blew the whistle on their TIF district threat to taxpayers

By Ray Hanania

09-04-24 The dangers of Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau’s secretive TIF district proposals

I am not surprised Orland Park Trustee Cindy Katsenes, a local realtor with Village Realty, attacked me personally at the Village Board meeting on Tuesday night, and also attacked Mohammed Jaber for raising issues about her and Pekau’s TIF District proposal. Katsenes and Pekau are hiding something and don’t want to detail it because of the huge negative impact their TIF plans will have on taxpayers and on our local schools.

Katsenes and Pekau have failed for the past two years to file the Village of Orland Park financial audits. What are they hiding?

You need to listen to this interview I do with TIF expert Tom Tresser explaining how TIFs can easily be manipulated to benefit the politicians and their failed financial policies, to cover up debts (Orland Park, Katsenes, and Pekau have failed to file the Village’s Financial Audits now two years in a row).

Veteran TIF investigator and TIF author Tom Tresser details the dangers of how a TIF can easily be abused, soaking the property tax monies away from taxing bodies like school districts, libraries, and other local agencies all to shore up a government’s debt, reward its contractors and contributor,s and to do it exploiting the TIF benefits that ease public disclosure.

TIF Expert and author Tom Tresser discusses the hazards of a TIF DIstrict and how it applies to Orland Park taxpayers
TIF Expert and author Tom Tresser discusses the hazards of a TIF DIstrict and how it applies to Orland Park taxpayers

 

The TIF districts being proposed in Orland Park could be part of an effort to off-set major municipal debt, give huge lucrative contracts to local developers who have donated to the politicians, and create huge burdens on taxpayers.

TIF’s require a designation of a property area to be called “Blighted”, but that is an easy description to achieve. This is must must-listen education on the dangers of a TIF being exploited by an untrustworthy mayor who has not given enough information on how the proposed TIFs will operate or where the money will go.

The public right to know is unanswered in a TIF district, and it can be done by giving the public proper notice and complete information on the financial aspects of a TIF. For more information on Tresser, visit www.Tresser.com Also visit Tom’s website The TIF Illumination Project at www.TIFReports.com. For more information on Ray Hanania, visit www.Hanania.com

Watch the video interview using the widget below or click this link to watch it on YouTube.


 

Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter who has lived in Orland Park since 1986. He writes for many suburban newspapers including The Regional News. For more information on this and other topics visit his website at hanania.com, to get information on subscribing to his columns and video podcasts below. email him at [email protected].

 

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Ray Hanania
Ray Hanania
Ray Hanania is an award-winning opinion columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.  

His award winning columns can be found at www.HANANIA.COM Subscribe FREE today

Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

Email Ray Hanania at [email protected].

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Blogger, Commentary, Cook County, Government, Opinion, Orland Park, Politics, rayhanania, Suburban Chicagoland, Taxes Tags:author, Cindy Katsenes, Keith Pekau, Mohammed Jaber, Orland Park, realtor, secretive land deals, Tax Increment Financing, TIF, TIF DIstrict, TIF expert, Tom Tresser, unfiled Village Audits

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