By JON HARTMAN
Over the past six years as Planning & Development Director I have been talking about the opportunities using Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and its potential to help increase new development. I am proud to say that all of this work is finally coming to a head. Working in conjunction with the City Manager’s Office, City Council, County Mayor’s Office, County Commission, and the Elizabethton Housing Authority, we are FINALLY to a point where we will be presenting this incentive before City Council and the County Commission. But I want to go over, yet again why this is important for Elizabethton and Carter County.
Using TIF as a redevelopment incentive tool allows the city to encourage in-fill development. Basically, what this means is that it encourages new development in an area where city services are already being provided. Police and fire can easily respond with no new stations, major road infrastructure is already in place, and water and sewer services have capacity to allow for new connections. This means that the city will have to invest very little tax or user-fee revenue to get a development completed, which helps keep property taxes and user-fees low.
Another reason for utilizing TIF is to help improve the possible environmental concerns with many of these sites. While not all of the properties in the redevelopment area are highly contaminated, we are just unsure of what may be found once development starts on these sites. This big question can easily scare off a developer who may have to spend hundreds of thousands of unplanned dollars to remediate a site. With TIF in place, it allows developers to tap into another source of funds to help get some of these sites cleaned up and secure an environmental contamination from spreading.
Lastly, TIF increases the tax base for the city and the county. The redevelopment plan calls for some of the properties to become redeveloped as commercial sites. This means that during the short-term the city could see an increase in sales tax revenues. In the long-term, during and after TIF is no longer utilized, the city and county could see a dramatic increase in property taxes from these redeveloped properties. Additionally, some redevelopment projects will not qualify for TIF, but will be completed anyway, in which case the city and county would see those property tax revenues immediately. For our residents, increasing the property tax base means it is less likely city and county governments will need a property tax increase.
Dramatic, positive, change is not guaranteed, but at the same time there is little to no risk for city or county governments or city or county taxpayers. If projects are not developed, there is no money to be funded. If a project goes belly-up the risk remains with the developer, not the city or county. This is an opportunity to make our city and county better that we cannot pass up. To learn more about TIF, visit www.Elizabethton.org/TIF. Let’s talk about it!
(Jon Hartman is Director of Planning & Economic Development for the City of Elizabethton. He can be contacted at 542-1503 or by email at: jhartman@cityofelizabethton.org)