Agenda - Council Work Session - 02/27/2018

Home

Housing & Economic Development unless a local community chooses to do so; • Allow TIF eligibility expansion to innovative technological products, recognizing that not only physical items create economic value; • Support changes to TIF law that will facilitate the development of "regional projects"; • Shift TIF redevelopment policy away from a focus on "blight" and "substandard" to "functionally obsolete" or a focus on long range planning for a particular community, reduction in greenhouse gases or other criteria more relevant to current needs; • Encourage DEED to do an extensive cost -benefit analysis related to redevelopment, including an analysis of the various funding mechanisms, and an analysis of where the cost burden falls with each of the options compared to the distribution of the benefits of the redevelopment project; • Support TIF for neighborhood recovery efforts in the wake of the foreclosure crisis; • Consider creating an inter -disciplinary TIF team to review local exception TIF proposals, using established criteria, and make recommendations to the legislature on their passage; • Encourage the State Auditor to continue to work toward a more efficient and streamlined reporting process. There are an increasing number of noncompliance notices that have overturned longstanding practices or limited statutorily defined terms. The Legislature has not granted TIF rulemaking authority to the State Auditor and the audit powers granted by statute are not an appropriate vehicle for making administrative or legislative changes to TIF statutes. If the State Auditor is to exercise rulemaking authority, the administrative power to do so must be granted explicitly by the Legislature. The audit enforcement process does not create a level playing field for cities to challenge the Auditor's interpretation of statutes. The Legislature should provide a process through which to resolve disputes over TIF policy that is fair to all parties; • Clarify the use of TIF when a sale occurs after the closing of a district; • Revise substandard building test to simplify, resolve ambiguities and reduce continued threat of litigation; and • Amend TIF statute to address, through extending districts or other mechanisms, shortfalls related to declining market values during economic crises. 3-M Eminent Domain Significant statutory restrictions on the use of eminent domain have resulted in higher public costs for traditional public use projects like streets, parks, and sewers, and have all but restricted the use of eminent domain for redevelopment to cases of extreme blight or contamination. 2018 Legislative Policies 31