Council ups city portion of AV from TIF district

After capturing less than half of the assessed value it legally could for years, the Greencastle City Council upped the ante Tuesday night.

Asked to approve a Greencastle Redevelopment Commission letter requesting $75 million as the amount of assessed value to be captured from the Greencastle Economic Development Area (aka TIF district) for 2017, the Council raised that figure to $100 million, while still passing along an estimated $45-55 million to other local taxing districts.

That $100 million in AV is expected to generate approximately $3.8 million in revenues -- about twice the 2016 yield -- that could be used on costs associated with projects within the TIF (tax increment financing) district.

The Redevelopment Commission had originally requested an increased capture of $75 million in AV, while suggesting that the remaining assessed value of $70-$80 million would be passed to other taxing districts.

Councilmen stressed that the city and Redevelopment Commission are not taking an additional $25 million (the increase from $75 million to $100 million in AV), as might be misconceived by some. Instead, what is at stake is the tax increment off that AV, which amounted to $1.9 million for 2016 and could mean $2.67 million to the city in 2017.

"We're still only taking two-thirds of what we could be taking," Councilman Dave Murray noted.

The city has long been conservative in capturing far less assessed value than it could have, as City Attorney Laurie Hardwick has previously pointed out.

"Most districts are set up to take the full amount possible -- 100 percent," Hardwick has said.

Councilman Gary Lemon, who also serves on the Redevelopment Commission, said Greencastle may be the only city in the state not capturing all of its TIF area assessed value.

"I've always been in favor of taking it all," Lemon said, noting that last year he "pushed to get it bumped up."

According to the economic development plan passed by the city, the tax increment off that AV will be used to fund projects like the reconstruction of South Jackson Street from Veterans Highway south to the city limits, Mayor Bill Dory said.

It will also help fund the widening of Indianapolis Road to three lanes with sidewalks on at least one side, from east of the Kroger main entrance to 10th Street.

"Pretty much everything is designed, " the mayor said of the Indianapolis Road project, "except for storm drainage."

He called the ravine area west of Headley Hardware a "conundrum" as far as figuring out how to capture the storm water without forcing it to run all the way to McDonald's where the storm water infrastructure isn't big enough to handle all of it.

Because of the need for property acquisition and property easements, it will likely be next year before that project is started, the mayor said.

Those two projects alone would require more than the $1.9 million that 50 percent of the AV would capture this year.

That doesn't even take into account the possibility of funding construction of a community center/YMCA.

"The community center is another big project," Lemon said, adding that he would hate to see the project lose a gym or a meeting room because there wasn't enough local funding available.

"I'm still in favor of taking it all," Lemon said, indicating the move would have "marginal impact" on the other taxing units.

Councilman Tyler Wade explained that those other units are not "losing a piece of the pie" as someone else suggested. The increment from the AV is "new money," he stressed, and not something other taxing units might have budgeted to use.

While the Redevelopment Commission had suggested using the figure $75 million, the Council unanimously upped it to $100 million after considering all the projects already in the pipeline.

"With all the things we'd like to see done," the increase is more than appropriate, Councilman Murray reasoned in making a motion to raise it. Councilman Mark Hammer seconded that.

Council President Adam Cohen suggested that after the numbers are certified next month, a committee be established to explore the possibility of capturing 100 percent of the assessed value of the TIF district next year.

While the Putnam County Auditor's Office has not yet finished tabulating the actual assessed valuation for 2016 pay 2017 taxes, the exact amount available for pass through won't be determined until those values are established and a TIF neutralization study is completed.

"The Commission understands that the revenue generated by the economic development area will depend on final tax rates," Redevelopment Commission President Erika Gilmore said in a letter detailing the request. "It also understands that assessed values may change due to trending, appeals, new construction and roll-off of abatements."