Missoula County lays out budgets, projects for two Bonner tax-increment districts

Missoula County officials told the Bonner Milltown Community Council that proposed budgets for two tax increment finance districts (called TEDs, or targeted economic development districts) within the council’s boundaries will fund infrastructure projects and program costs while preserving general-county dollars.

The presentation, led by Andrew Hagemeyer, the county’s community and economic development director, and finance staffer Flana McLarty, explained how tax increment financing channels new tax revenue inside a TED to pay for roads, water, sewer and other infrastructure and then, when a TED expires, returns a larger tax base to other taxing jurisdictions.

Hagemeyer said the tool “allows us to really make infrastructure improvements, and allows us to attract investment in an area without the use of the general tax dollar,” and warned it also “freeze[s] that existing tax base” for other taxing jurisdictions for the life of the district.

Officials presented line-item estimates for the Bonner Mill TED and the West Bonner Logyard TED. For the Bonner Mill district they estimated roughly $418,000 in annual tax-increment revenues and about $500 in interest; planned district expenses included $64,000 in administrative costs, a roughly $282,000 reimbursement for an ambulance-bay project, about $50,000 for…