For years, I've been really trying to bring the TIF program to life in an often-futile attempt to make this abstract concept tangible and real, Senior Writer Ben Joravksy of the Chicago Reader writes.

And now, in one fell swoop, Treasurer Maria Pappas has accomplished what, alas, I could not do no matter how hard I tried.

Pappas had her office's computers sift through last year's tax data to determine which TIF districts in Cook County got how much in property tax dollars.

"TIFs are the last bastion of the unexplained," Pappas told Joravsky.

Thank you, Maria Pappas, for doing what staffers for Mayors Daley and Rahm said could not be done.

Apparently, where there's a will, there really is a way.

Read the column.