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Bloomington City Council Delays TIF Guideline Vote

Ryan Denham
/
WGLT
District 87 Superintendent Barry Reilly speaks to the Bloomington City Council on Tuesday, May 29, 2018.

After a hotly contested debate, Bloomington aldermen decided Monday to postpone a vote on new guidelines that would clarify when the city uses tax increment financing districts (TIFs).

District 87 Superintendent Barry Reilly is a TIF critic. He said lost funding as a result of earlier 23-year TIF districts has led to his concerns now.

“Every time we limit our access to dollars, that plays an impact on that, and that can hurt us,” Reilly said. “We’re looking for a lessening of that.”

Reilly was joined at Monday's meeting by Unit 5 Superintendent Mark Daniel, who also voiced concerns over long-term TIF planning. He said the city needs to “get creative.”

District 87 Attorney John Pratt echoed Daniel’s challenge to aldermen to think of better ways to boost local economy without putting local schools at risk.

"Let's do something other than 23-year, all-in TIFs."

“Please don’t do 23-year, all-in TIFs. We don’t want that,” Pratt said. “That was our attempt to say, let’s be creative here. Let’s do something other than 23-year, all-in TIFs.”

A TIF district diverts any new taxes generated by an increase in property values back into redevelopment of the area, usually for 23 years. Municipal leaders say TIF provides incentives to land big projects without taking money out of their current budget. Critics say TIF districts can needlessly erode the tax base, hurting school districts, and sometimes lack transparency.

There were many references to the city’s 54-block downtown TIF district that was in effect from 1986 to 2009. Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner has even pointed to that downtown TIF as too big and not transparent enough.

Reilly pointed out that even though surplus funds from that effort were supposed to be paid back to taxpayers, the money never came. It’s past projects like that one that led Reilly and Daniel to see long-term TIFs as a loss for school districts, which get most of their funding from property taxes.

Attorneys representing both school districts and the city will meet to rewrite parts of the plan before a vote next week.

The Bloomington City Council will have to approve three ordinances on the June 25 meeting to create the new East Washington Street TIF district.

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