June 23, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Ald. Judy Olson, District 6 245-0557

Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4 576-4355

Economic Issues Task Force Co-Chair Vicky Selkowe 772-6046

Progressive Dane offers reform package for City’s

Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) Policy

Proposals called “logical place to get the discussion moving again”; would increase community involvement and ensure community benefits

Madison – Two alders who serve on the City’s Board of Estimates are offering a proposal for reforms to Madison’s policies governing Tax Incremental Financing (TIF), an increasingly important tool for promoting economic development goals. The proposed reforms aim to increase community involvement and accountability in TIF-related decisions and to ensure that TIF projects provide clearly stated benefits to the community.

The alders intend to introduce these reforms, approved by Progressive Dane’s General Membership at their monthly meeting last night, at the June 27, 2005 Board of Estimates meeting.

“The City is spending millions of dollars each year on TIF subsidies; all too often, the public gets lost in the complexity of TIF itself and can’t adequately understand what’s being requested as part of a TIF application or what’s at stake for the community,” said Ald. Judy Olson, District 6. “We have a responsibility to ensure that the public and stakeholders can participate fully in TIF subsidy decisions and that the process is made more transparent, less complicated and more accessible to taxpayers, neighborhood associations, community organizations and other residents. TIF reform is sorely needed, and this is an important starting point.”

Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4 said, “This package of ideas is a logical place to get the long-overdue discussion about TIF reform moving again. If we are to meaningfully shape TIF projects and get the biggest bang for the taxpayers’ dollars, then we have to end the first-come, first-serve rush by developers to get to the City’s limited TIF funds.”

The set of ideas includes reforms for the city, the developers and city residents, including:

· Requiring the City to develop an annual TIF plan and budget, in which the City identifies development priorities for projects and geographic areas, giving developers better information about what projects are most desired.

· Requiring the City and developers to reach out to residents to ensure that the subsidy process is driven by City residents and maximizes the use of limited TIF dollars.

· Requiring developers to articulate a set of community benefits that will accrue with the subsidy.

Verveer added, “This proposal will also allow us to truly revitalize and sustain our downtown by prioritizing TIF funding projects that promote diversity and businesses that provide quality jobs and are concerned about the environment.”

“We think it’s completely reasonable to support, with our taxpayer dollars, TIF projects that will improve the lives of community residents,” added Vicky Selkowe, Co-Chair of Progressive Dane’s Economic Issues Task Force. “But we also believe that it’s reasonable to expect a greater return on our investment and ensure that we are funding TIF projects that have an easily identifiable community benefit. As taxpayers, we also believe developers seeking city subsidies should tell us and the City as a whole what impacts the project will have on the surrounding area’s environment, traffic, housing, and economy.”

Proposed Reforms

• Require the City to develop an annual TIF plan and budget, in which it sets development priorities for specific projects and/or geographic areas. The development of this annual plan should be widely publicized and citizen input should be solicited.
• Build significant community oversight into this TIF annual review process by requiring broad distribution to community stakeholders of a written report about Tax Incremental Financing districts’ performance and goals for future expenditures.
• Support the downtown and Madison residents by prioritizing for TIF approval businesses that provide quality jobs and promote environmental sustainability.
• As part of the initial application for TIF subsidy, require the developer to submit a community impact statement addressing environmental, economic, housing, and traffic impacts of the project.
• Require the City to hold an initial public meting about each proposed TIF-funded development project and require the developer to finance a mailing to publicize this meeting to be hosted by the alder of residents in the affected area.
• Require the City to create and maintain an Interested Parties Registry for each TIF project so that interested or impacted individuals can be notified of all meetings or decisions about the TIF application.
• Clarify City policy to state that no TIF funded projects shall be eligible for a waiver from Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) requirements.
• Require developers to clearly articulate what community benefits will be provided by the proposed project. The developer can select from a list of possible community benefits, including: commitments that a certain number of jobs generated by the TIF project will be to workers from the project’s immediate neighborhood or workers designated as disadvantaged by the City’s Affirmative Action Department, committing to utilizing a certain amount of recycled materials for the project, etc. Developers who articulate five or more community benefits can be eligible for expedited review of their application.