Redevelopment Commission to consider its hold on tax revenues

The Columbus Redevelopment Commission is announcing a special meeting tomorrow. The agency will be meeting at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday  to consider the need to continue to capture all of the revenue possible from the city’s four tax increment financing districts.

The decision will affect millions of dollars in tax revenues that are being taken away from the county, schools, libraries and other taxing units that overlap the city’s four tax increment financing districts.

In a tax increment financing, or TIF district, a baseline property tax revenue level is set when the district is created. That base will always go to overlapping taxing units such as the city, county, library and school district. Any rising tax revenue above the baseline goes to the redevelopment commission to be spent on projects in that district.

However that decision has to be renewed annually. Since the TIF districts were first formed., Columbus has decided to retain all of that revenue. That has been a frequent bone of contention with some of the other government bodies who would like to see some of that new revenue, such as Bartholomew County.

Columbus has four TIF districts including the downtown and Walesboro areas, the Cummins Engine Plant  on Central Avenue and the airport.

The TIF districts are estimated to bring in more than $12.5 million dollars to the Redevelopment Commission this year.