The St. Joseph Downtown Development Authority has voted to approve a Tax Increment Financing plan to capture tax revenues for improvements in the area.
At a meeting this week, the DDA unanimously approved the plan, which would not create any new taxes but instead capture tax revenue growth.
The city hasn’t used Tax Increment Financing downtown since 1986, but DDA members envision using the capture for a variety of projects. St. Joseph Community Development Director Kelly Ewalt told the DDA there are all kinds of possibilities.
“To me, it’s exciting,” Ewalt said. “The more we talk about kind of the possibilities, I get kind of excited, like, it’s a list people talk about, like, do benches and maybe bring back public art?”
Ewalt said the plan was drafted with an expectation of moderate growth downtown. With the TIF in place, about $22,000 would be captured in the first year. DDA members also suggested that eventually, the TIF’s boundaries could be expanded to extend below the bluff so improvements might be made with capture financing there.
That plan now has to be approved by city commissioners. They’ll hold a public hearing on it at their next meeting.
