Reed Financial Group tells Kosciusko RDC TIFs yield far more RDC revenue than overlapping units, presenter says

Matt Frishee of Reed Financial Group presented the Kosciusko County Redevelopment Commission (RDC) with a final 2025 TIF impacts report, saying the county's TIF allocation areas hold about $138 million in incremental assessed value and that keeping that value in TIF districts generates substantially more revenue for RDC projects than would be realized by overlapping taxing units if the value were released to the base.

Frishee quantified the comparison in two ways. He said releasing the incremental assessed value to the base would yield about $240,015 in additional revenue to overlapping taxing units (mostly through reduced circuit-breaker losses), while the RDC's collections from those allocation areas were listed in presentation materials in the range of roughly $1.28 million to $1.52 million. "So to put it in other terms, for every dollar that you guys receive in the form of TIF revenue, 84¢ of it would not be received if that AV was not in a TIF allocation area," Frishee said, summarizing the analysis as a "TIF margin."

Frishee walked commissioners through core mechanics of TIF: TIF captures assessed-value growth above a base year for parcels in a TIF allocation area; that increment funds projects in an economic development area (which may be larger than the allocation area). He said the TIF "clock" typically runs 25 years once debt payable from TIF revenue is incurred and noted a different term for certain housing TIFs (20 years).

On uses of TIF revenue, Frishee said statute permits an RDC to contribute up to 15% of annual TIF revenues to benefit schools when the expenditure is tied to workforce or community development projects (he cited examples such as welding or science labs). He also said recent changes allow TIF dollars to be used for public safety operational or capital expenses.

Commissioners pressed on scale and distribution. Frishee used the Warsaw Community School Corporation as an example, saying that even a $137,000 change in reduced circuit-breaker liability would represent about 0.13% of that district's 2025 budget, illustrating the small relative impact on a large district budget. He also cautioned that several details depend on statutory rules, the neutralization process, and whether TIF allocation areas have outstanding debt: expanding allocation parcels with existing debt can start a new 25-year clock for those parcels.

The presentation included numerical slides and back-and-forth questions; Frishee said a follow-up presentation would address expiration and clock-start nuances in greater detail. The RDC did not take a formal vote on changing any TIF boundaries or allocations during this meeting.

Ending: Commissioners were offered a second, more detailed presentation on statutory expiration questions and next steps for amending economic development areas or allocation areas.