By Howard Packowitz

NORMAL – Normal’s Town Council favors extending tax increment financing for yet-to-be developed property in Uptown Normal.

So-called TIF’s are an economic tool used as an incentive for developers to build-up blighted property. Property tax revenue helps finance the development instead of being distributed to local taxing bodies.

Monday night, the council unanimously approved the extension and an intergovernmental agreement to allow local taxing bodies to take advantage of higher property values from already-developed Uptown properties.

Councilman Jeff Fritzen said the town needs to leverage what’s already happened Uptown.

“We have developable parcels that are attractive because of what already happened. If we were to let the TIF expire or not get this extension, that’s going to diminish what we’ve done already uptown,” Fritzen said.

The TIF district would expire in 2038 for undeveloped properties between Uptown Circle and College Avenue and a parcel between College and Mulberry.

Last year’s mayoral challenger Marc Tiritilli criticized the move on his Facebook page. He said promises made to the various taxing bodies about returning a flow of dollars are being broken, and the town needs to find developers capable of succeeding without public subsidies.

The intergovernmental agreement to extend the TIF district will be considered later this month by the McLean County Board, the Unit 5 School Board, the Heartland Community College Board of Trustees, the Normal Township Board, and the Bloomington-Normal Water Reclamation District.

Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]