TIF presentation doesn't answer all questions for school board

The Cape Girardeau school board for the first time Tuesday night heard a tax increment financing presentation by Mark Grimm, an attorney hired by the city to handle TIF matters.

Alongside the Cape Girardeau City Council, school board members asked plenty of questions only to be given plenty of incomplete answers.

For example, no proposal has been submitted by the Prestwick Plantation developers, who wish to build an upscale subdivision next to a golf course that has already been built, to the TIF commission. As a result, it is not yet known how much money the school district will receive up front to offset the costs from more students from a huge, new subdivision.

Furthermore, the board won't know if that amount of money will be sufficient until a cost-benefit study is completed by the city's consultant, Chauncy Buchheit, deputy director of the Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission.

"My understanding when we first heard about this idea was that we would get a large sum up front," said Bob Fox, the school board president. "If that occurs, it could be a win-win situation for the school district and the developers."

Before all that is decided, the Prestwick Plantation Developers must find out if they legally qualify for TIF.

TIF is the process of government entities using extra tax revenue generated from a new development to subsidize that particular development by providing infrastructure like streets and sewers.

The school board is highly interested in the TIF project, considering the school district, more than any other entity, will be affected financially.

Because real estate taxes would make up the largest chunk of economic incentive for the developers, the school district stands to lose the most.

So far, the Cape Girardeau City Council has taken no action other than to organize a commission and consider the matter. The ultimate decision that will have to be made is whether the developers would or could build the development without the use of TIF. The TIF commission, made up of representatives from all local tax entities, was organized to make a recommendation to the council. The school board has two members on the TIF commission.

A blighted area?

One of the issues being looked at is if the developers' land will qualify as a blighted or conservation area.

Buchheit is looking into the matter, but could not be reached at his office Monday. Grimm and Bob Suelmann, one of the developers heading the project, were unsure of the property's status or how far along Buchheit is in his research.

Many have questioned whether the area could be considered blighted or a conservation area.

It might be possible for TIF to be performed under an economic development area. However, constitutional questions remain about economic development areas as that statute was not part of the original language of TIF legislation. Grimm said, because of the broad parameters of the definitions, most TIF projects fit under the blighted or conservation areas, such as the West County Mall in the St. Louis area. Economic development areas have never been challenged for constitutionality in Missouri.

Despite the vagueness of the legal definitions of blighted and conservation areas, some question whether the farmland property off Bloomfield Road just inside the city limits will fit the description.

"Two of those have to do with the property having to have some sort of problem," said school board member Martha Zlokovich. "One has to do with the economy. It has to be explained how a golf course can be built on this property without TIF but these homes can't."

No TIF money would go toward the golf course.

bmiller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127