ABOVE: District 118 Board President Darlene Halloran, Board Member Christopher Easton, Superintendent John Hart, and Interim Finance Director Todd Pence listen in on a Tuesday morning meeting at Tilton Village Hall for taxing bodies affected by Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts. Tilton is considering adding a sixth active TIF district within the village.
At the recent District 118 School Board meeting on August 5th, Interim Finance Director Todd Pence let it be known that the district would very much like to sign intergovernmental agreements with both Danville and Tilton concerning Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts. Both cities have multiple TIF districts, which freeze how much money taxing bodies like school districts receive in property tax revenue during a TIF district’s designated 23 years. During that time, any tax revenue from increased assessment values goes right back into the district for improvement and redevelopment purposes.
This week, the district’s eyes have been on Tilton. While Tuesday’s morning meeting was entirely about a newly proposed TIF District (consisting mostly of Tilton consultant Jared Kanallakan speaking via zoom with two Tilton officials present; City Administrator Tiffany McClellen and Clerk Lori Fields); District 118 officials also had a sit down meeting with Tilton’s Mayor Bill Wear about all the Tilton TIFS on Monday.
The newly proposed TIF would surround District 118’s Southwest Elementary on three sides, and move west of there; designed partially to bring more residential development to Tilton. City Administrator Tiffany McClellen stated after Tuesday’s meeting that the area west of the school is the only area where Tilton could bring in more residents. (The old Vermilion Manor nursing home, now abandoned and most likely to be torn down, is also in that area.)
Pence says adding more residents within a TIF district would basically be a double-wammy for District 118. They’d be getting no additional property tax revenue from an area producing more students.
AUDIO: Now we would get some additional state aid, because that’s based on enrollment, but that’s only part of the financial picture.
Pence says rather than focusing on just the possible new TIF, he wants to work on an intergovernmental agreement that would allow District 118 to receive 25% of the revenue that they would be getting if not for the TIFs. Pence said it would certainly add up, because the numbers show that with Tilton’s TIFs, 60% of the revenue raised is being taken from District 118. Pence says the good news is the Village of Tilton has asked for something specific; and that’s for District 118 to show them exactly what the money they would recover would be used for, and the possibility that both parties could agree on that.
AUDIO: And they had some things that they would like to see the money go for. And for them, it’s a lot easier if they see it’s going for something in particular.
For now, the next meeting at Tilton Village Hall where the proposed new TIF would be discussed is Thursday, September 17th.
