St. Joseph City Commissioners have advanced a plan to establish a new Downtown Development Authority Tax Increment Financing district, which will enable the DDA to build up a reserve of funds for improvements in the area.
On Monday, commissioners held their first reading on the DDA TIF plan with Development Director Kelly Ewalt telling them what the TIF will do.
“A TIF works by recording the current or base level property tax in a designated area, and as those property values increase over time through new development or improvements, the incremental growth in a property tax revenue is captured by the DDA,” Ewalt said. “Those dollars are then reinvested into the area, which in our case is the DDA.”
This TIF, to just cover the DDA’s boundaries, is expected to raise about $22,000 in its first year, but over time, it could lead to downtown improvements like facade upgrades, parking lot repairs, or new seating. Commissioner Michael Fernandez said this will be another tool to help improve the area.
“This will better equip those future generations,” Fernandez said. “As we look to bring more people in, this will better equip them to handle those challenges — and hopefully we’ll be able to fix quite a bit of it for them — but this puts us on the path for the future.”
Andrew Haan with Cornerstone Alliance told commissioners dollars captured by a TIF have to be used on things for the public.
Now that a first reading has been held, the plan has to be published and then sent on to the state.
