| | | | | | | | DATE:
| 2/14/2023
| MEMO:
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| TO:
| Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe
City Council Members
| FROM:
| Jon Kindseth, Deputy City Manager
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| | | | | | | | | SUBJECT: Resolution in Support of Tax Increment Financing |
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| | | | | | | | | SUMMARY RECOMMENDATION: City staff recommends approval of this item expressing City of Decatur support of Tax Increment Financing Act. |
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| | | | | | | | | BACKGROUND: Senator Ann Gillespie has filed tax increment financing reform legislation. The Illinois Municipal League (IML) believes this bill to be counterproductive or harmful to TIF Districts. Those proposed changes include, among other things:
- significantly modifies the criteria for “blighted area” designation;
- expands the composition and authority of the joint review board;
- reduces the life of newly created districts to 20 years (from 23 years currently);
- eliminates subsequent 12-year extensions (to 35 or 47 years) of current districts and allows for only one two-year extension (to 22 years) of any district;
- prohibits future district boundaries from overlapping existing district boundaries;
- requires the transfer of TIF funds to a local chamber of commerce;
- allows a school district or community college district to not participate in the TIF district (any increment within their boundaries would not be collected by the TIF district and would instead be paid to the school or community college district directly); and,
- restricts the use of surplus funds.
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| | | | | | | | | PRIOR COUNCIL ACTION: The City of Decatur has multiple TIF Districts in the City. The Old Towne TIF is what allowed to City to transform our downtown into what it is today. All of the City TIFs have realized positive developments that generated increased property values not only for the City but for all of the other overlapping taxing districts. The City's interests would not be best served by the proposed bill that guts the original intent of the TIF Act. With approval of this Resolution we would be joining municipalities across the State to send the message to the Illinois Legislature to reject this proposed harmful bill. |
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| | | | | | | | | STAFF REFERENCE: Additional questions can be forwarded to Jon Kindseth, Deputy City Manager at 217-424-2801 (jkindseth@decaturil.gov). |
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