Monday, September 17, 2012

TIF Fact #8 --- 20% of IPS Taxing District Contained Within a TIF - How Much is Prudent?

I sent the following email message to all City-County Councillors, select media representatives, and Senator Luke Kenley.

At some point too much taxable property contained within TIF districts is too much and will cause irreparable harm to the taxing units and the services they can provide due to a crippling increase in circuit breaker penalties. 
22.0% of all taxable property in the IPS taxing district is contained within a TIF.
How much is prudent?
For pay-2013, IPS faces a circuit breaker penalty of $15.2 million.  That's a lot of money left on the table - money IPS qualifies for, but cannot collect due to the property tax caps.  How much of that is due to such a huge percentage of property value locked down in TIFs?
In a city that claims to value a better education for its children, do you know how much TIFs impact the circuit breaker penalty faced by IPS and therefore cause a cutback in services that IPS is able to provide to the children? Do you know the impact of expanding the consolidated downtown TIF by 716 acres (1.1 square mile)?
The Council should demand full disclosure before Prop 15 or any other TIFs are considered.  Otherwise you won't know what you are voting on.

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