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ANISDA presentation: NIZ has channeled development and tax revenue to downtown projects, staff say
Summary
ANISDA Executive Director Steve Bamford told a special Allentown meeting that the Neighborhood Improvement Zone (NIZ) has driven more than $1.2 billion in downtown investment and that nearly all NIZ tax receipts are state taxes applied to debt service and public improvements; council members pressed staff on displacement, affordable housing and how excess funds are allocated.
Steve Bamford, executive director of the Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone Development Authority (ANISDA), laid out how the NIZ finances development and public improvements during a special Allentown City meeting on April 22.
Bamford said state legislation authorized a roughly 130‑acre Neighborhood Improvement Zone and ANISDA was created to administer financing and improvements within it. He said the NIZ has enabled what he described as more than $1,200,000,000 in downtown investment and that revenues generated inside the zone are applied to debt service and public‑improvement financing rather than to city operating budgets.
Citing figures shown on slides, Bamford said the NIZ revenue mix is heavily weighted toward state taxes: for the most recently completed certification cycle he described (2024 revenue used in 2025), certified receipts included a little over $98 million in state taxes plus about $5 million in locally certified taxes, for roughly $103 million remitted to ANISDA’s escrow agent. He said about $66.5…
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