SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - A specific tax helps renovate two parks in Springfield - Enos and Madison Park Place.

It took years to beautify the neighborhood with the help of Tax Increment Financing, also known as TIFs. Basically, it is a tax that is used to help revitalize designated neighborhoods and increase their property value.

LaKeisha Purchase, a Capital Township trustee, lives in the Enos Park District. 

"It [TIFs] helps areas that have deteriorated and dilapidated homes," Purchase added. "It just gives perks to people who want to come over into a rural area - a neighborhood that needed some perks." 

Purchase believes TIFs are essential to Enos and Madison Park Place. In order to keep the momentum going, the city of Springfield asked the Capital Township board of trustees to provide a letter extending the TIF districts.

"I have been making a motion to have a support letter for (an) Enos Park TIF extension," Purchase said.

Every time Purchase makes a motion, she said there's silence and she can't get a second during meetings. However, Joe Aiello, the township supervisor, said the money spent through TIFs exceeded the return.

"TIF districts were set out to last 23 years and no more than 23 years," Aiello explained.

Purchase said her colleagues are dragging their feet. The deadline to provide a letter is due by the end of the month. Aiello said the board wants more transparency from Mayor Jim Langfelder's office.

"We sent them an intergovernmental agreement that calls for that (transparency) and create a little more structure," Aiello said.

However, Purchase said an intergovernmental agreement "relinquishes the mayor and the city council's authority." She said it creates another body that has the taxing entities come together.

The township trustee said the board sat on this for more than six months. Aiello told WAND news the board is not saying 'no' to extending the TIF districts, but they're not saying yes yet.

"This is an issue that's been discussed for many years by taxing districts through out the state and Sangamon County," Aiello said.

Still, Purchase believes their silence says otherwise. She feels as if "its a stall tactic to find something to put in place."

WAND News reached out to Mayor Langfelder's office for additional comment. No one had responded yet.