Draft TIF guidelines on table for city commission tonight

A Cape Girardeau commission wants the city council to set guidelines on what types of development projects can be considered for tax-increment financing now that a proposed upscale residential development surrounding a golf course won't be funded that way.

The TIF Commission is scheduled to meet tonight to discuss proposed guidelines drafted by city planner Kent Bratton. The meeting is set for 7 p.m. at the Osage Community Centre.

Bratton said the draft document offers a starting point for discussion. "It is up to them what they want to do," he said.

Al Spradling III, TIF chairman and former Cape Girardeau mayor, said Tuesday he doesn't know if the commissioners will be ready to vote and make recommendations to the council at the meeting.

"If we can refine it, we may make a recommendation," Spradling said.

Spradling said the goal of tonight's meeting is to avoid wasting the time of the commission, the city council and developers over future use of tax-increment financing -- or TIF, as it's commonly called.

Developers have to spend thousands of dollars drafting development plans to seek tax-increment financing. Spradling said TIF commissioners don't want developers to have to spend a lot of money on plans that aren't likely to win council approval.

Financing has many uses

The proposed draft would allow TIFs for industrial, commercial, residential and recreational projects that create jobs.

Financing could be used for everything from land purchases to water, street and sewer work, and capital costs such as equipment and buildings. Even legal and engineering fees incurred by the TIF Commission, the city of Cape Girardeau and a developer could be covered under the financing plan.

The draft guidelines would allow the use of development-generated revenue from property sales, earnings, gross receipts and utility taxes to pay off bonds to finance the improvements.

While the bonds were being retired, the added tax revenue would be going toward the project's expenses instead of to taxing entities such as school districts.

Commissioners called for the creation of guidelines at a meeting in August after Prestwick Plantation developers withdrew their hotly debated request for TIF funding for a residential development surrounding Dalhousie Golf Club.

Developers withdrew the request after the local school board -- concerned about the loss of tax revenue from tax abatements -- objected to the proposal.

Spradling said the city's TIF policy likely will change over the years with the election of new council members.

"This is going to have to be an evolving policy with each council," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123