(Havre) The most recent Havre City Council meeting saw a small presentation from Paul Tuss, representing Downtown Havre Matters, where he proposed that the city create a Tax Increment Finance District, or TIF District, somewhere in Havre.
New Media Broadcasters spoke with Tuss for more information on what a TIF district does.
“What it does is it caps property taxes within the confines of that particular district at its current level and then as taxes increase in that district, that increment, that increase, will go into a fund for fifteen years and that fund can be used for things like facade development, curb and gutter, sidewalk, other infrastructural enhancements within the confines of that district.” he said.
This new TIF district would only apply to property taxes, says Tuss, and the only way those taxes would raise within this hypothetic district would be via what he’s calling “natural tax increases.”
This is a new concept to Havre, but is not a new concept, as other places like Fort Benton have used this concept before, and to “great effect” according to Tuss. Other places in Montana have used it too, the Missoula Redevelopment Agency has a graphic they created on the concept, click on “MRA TIF Example” below to view that.
The concept goes even further back than that, though, as he’s provided us with a 26-slide presentation on the concept from 2008, the information of which he’s still using a reference material. To view this for yourself, click “Basics of TIF” below.
These are things like reappraisal cycles, or if a bare lot was built on. He stresses that the TIF doesn’t increase taxes, it simply captures property tax dollars in a particular district that would have gone elsewhere and commits them to infrastructural development.
Where that “particular district”, as Tuss puts it, will be is still undefined, as he says that discussions with the Havre City Council and others are coming in the near future to define these areas and specifics.
Ultimately, the Havre City Council will have the final say on whether or not this goes into effect.
