Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Funding Community Redevelopment Agencies, by Bobby Garner

Back at Gertee and it's been way cold. 52 below first night home.. warmed up for a few days and back down to 30 below last night. It was 18 in here after I slept ten hours straight and didn't get up to stoke the fire. Within a half hour it was up to 50 and then..tada.... I got my phone line hooked up! It was good to take a break from the internet after so much research for the revision. It's been years since I read THAT many publications about the new laws.

Here's a KEY piece that I will try to get into the revision if it's still possible. What a HUGE can of worms Bobby's opened with this one! Fantastic tool for the folks out there looking for ways to stop this kind of development in their home towns. Thanks Bobby. Good work, as always. :)

Niki, a search of your blog indicates that you may not be aware of this financing scheme.

Bobby

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Tax Increment Financing (TIF), Funding Community Redevelopment Agencies
Date:	Sun, 30 Jan 2011 15:07:42 -0600
From:	Bobby Garner
To:	recipients

"TIF raises tax revenue for development efforts without raising taxes." Or so goes the sales pitch. But that doesn't mean your property tax doesn't increase. In fact, TIF guarantees that your property taxes will go up to the tune of billions of dollars in many cases. Tax Increment Financing is the diversion of property taxes to Community Redevelopment Agencies.

You've probably heard the news that California's new governor wants to eliminate Community Redevelopment Agencies to reclaim the $1.7 billion in property tax revenue that now goes to them. Why does this have municipal governments screaming foul?

Under California law, redevelopment agencies are granted two powers not otherwise available to cities:

• Power to acquire property for the purpose of resale to a private developer, utilizing eminent domain if necessary.

• Tax increment financing, whereby all increases in property tax (including portions that would normally go to the county, school districts and special districts) flow to the redevelopment agency for the sole purpose of paying back funds borrowed for land acquisition and public infrastructure improvements.

Tax Increment Financing works essentially the same in all states which have adopted it. In Ohio; "Tax Increment Financing (TIF) provides local governments with a way to fund public infrastructure improvements (such as roadways, bridges, ditches, water, and sewer lines) that are associated with new development. TIF programs have been widely popular since states began authorizing their use in the 1950s. According to the Tax Increment Finance Coalition, 49 states have enabled local governments to designate TIF districts to finance public infrastructure in some manner or another.

According to the Council of Development Finance Agencies, which runs the Tax Increment Finance Coalition "Tax increment finance has become the most widely used and successful financing tool in the economic development toolbox with nearly every U.S. state, district and territory now having authorizing statutes."

"TIF ‑ or Tax Increment Financing ‑ which is a diversion of property taxes. Originally conceived to help revitalize depressed inner‑city areas, TIF allows a city to designate a small “TIF district” and say: we are going to redevelop this area, and when we do, property values will go up and therefore property taxes will go up. When that happens, we will split the tax revenue into two streams. The first stream, set at the “base value” before redevelopment, will continue to go where it always has: to schools, police, fire, and other public services. The second stream, made up of all the increase – or “tax increment” – will be diverted back into the TIF district to subsidize the redevelopment." - Risks and Opportunities” New York City ‑ March 12, 2003

Community Redevelopment Agencies are private corporations and unaccountable to the people. They have powers that local governments don't have, but they operate with the approval of local governments. The money gained from tax increment financing is handed over by the municipality to the relevant Community Redevelopment Agency to be spent for redevelopment purposes at the discretion of the agency.

You may need to read that last paragraph again to get the full import, because what it means is that your increasing property tax dollars are not applied toward constitutional government responsibilities. One hundred percent of the increases you have seen since TIF was begun in your state, have gone to these private corporations where the funds are used to further increase your taxes if you live in or near any of the redevelopment areas. Tax revenue increases because redevelopment increases the value of the property. The City of Boynton Beach, Florida has a good definition of how this process works with a nice graph illustrating how taxes are increased without the usual political repercussions.

In case you missed it, the United States of America is in a state of chain reaction collapse which has it's roots in the "Radical Left" of the 1960's counter-culture and the institutions which promoted the conditions which it railed against, together with the solutions that were adopted in response. Desegregation, political assassinations, environmental regulations, and numerous other things have contributed to the chaos of Social Disorganization, financial collapse and general systemic breakdown. We can associate all of this with the controlled and well regulated Dialectic process, and that means that it's all going according to a Master Plan of action to achieve a common agenda.

LINKS:
- History of TIF In Maine
"The Tax Increment Allocation Redevelopment Act was passed by the Illinois General Assembly in 1977." - Galesburg, IL
- Ohio's Tax Increment Financing Program
- Tax Increment Financing in Florida
- Understanding Tax Increment Financing
- Legislative History of Urban Renewal in Oregon
- Tax Increment Financing (TIF) in Washington: CRF, HBZ, LRF, and LIFT
Yahoo Searchs: (Your results may vary)
"Community Redevelopment Agency" - 55,600 results
"Community Redevelopment Agency", Communitarian - 7 results
"Tax Increment Financing" - 3,990,000 results
"Tax Increment Financing", Communitarian - 46 results
"Tax Increment Financing" , "Community Redevelopment Agency" - 461 results
These searchs reveal that people writing about TIF rarely mention Community Redevelopment or Communitarianism. Yet it appears to be the primary funding source for all Community Development.

To make this more interesting, try the search terms: "Tax Increment Financing", history, your state

And now you know where a large portion of the money comes from.

Bobby Garner
http://www.congregator.net/