Shelby County ad hoc committee to refine pilot moratorium, press for centralized PILOT repository

Shelby County ad hoc committee members spent their meeting on options for a pilot-program (PILOT) moratorium and on building a centralized repository to track tax-abatement deals, bond counsel opinions and quarterly compliance reports.

The committee discussed whether to shorten or narrow a previously drafted moratorium on new pilot agreements, reviewed a bond-counsel and legislative-counsel reading of Tennessee Code Annotated provisions related to industrial development boards (IDBs), and agreed to invite the nine local agencies that can grant abatements to discuss data sharing, standardization and reporting.

The discussion matters because PILOTs (payments in lieu of taxes) shift tax revenue away from county services and committee members said inconsistent documentation and limited public data make it hard to evaluate the fiscal and housing impacts of those programs. Janice Banks, SPW Community Strategies, pointed to bond- and legislative-counsel materials that, she said, indicate the legislative body can require IDBs to submit agreements for approval: "the legislative body of the municipality or municipalities making such delegationmay require the IDB submit…