By Howard Packowitz
BLOOMINGTON – Some key decisions were handed down Monday night by the Bloomington City Council that will impact economic development efforts.
Alderman unanimously approved a set of guidelines for tax increment financing aimed to limit, if possible, the impact on local taxing bodies. The District 87 School District doesn’t like that it has to wait decades before it can reap the benefits of rising land values, as those dollars are given back to developers.
The TIF guidelines still give the city flexibility in what it offers to encourage development, according to Mayor Tari Renner.
“Whether we do 23 years, 20, or 18, or 10, or none is up to those of us who do economic development,” Renner said.
The council declared a blighted area on East Washington Street, near Downtown, as a TIF district with a maximum 23 year duration. The TIF includes the old Bloomington High School, which a development firm wants to convert into affordable housing for seniors and commercial space.
The Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council will receive $100,000 in city funding, while BN Advantage gets $125,000 from the city to help fund the area’s marketing strategy to attract private investment.
Economic development efforts are usually done in secret, and the EDC is assuring aldermen they can show taxpayers are receiving a return on their investment.
Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]
