Council hears Bricker & Graden presentation on TIFs, abatements, port authority financing and new community authorities

The Village of Commercial Point council received a briefing from attorneys with Bricker & Graden explaining how common economic-development tools work — tax increment financing (TIF), community reinvestment area tax abatements (CRA), port-authority financing, PACE energy assessments, new community authorities (NCAs) and the Tax Incentive Review Council (TERC) — and what local officials need to know when negotiating them.

Adam, an attorney with Bricker & Graden who led the presentation, told the council these tools are part of a municipal “toolkit” used to make large projects pencil by rearranging or adding tax revenue streams to pay for infrastructure such as roads, sewer and water. He described three basic ways to address a project’s infrastructure needs: reduce taxes for the developer (tax abatement), divert tax revenue to an infrastructure fund (TIF), or add tax (new community authority assessments). “Abatement is almost like we’re just entering into another area to negotiate these things,” Adam said, describing how abatements are contractual,…