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Select Board weighs using amended TIF to relieve $27M wastewater debt and general-fund pressure
Summary
Board members said the town undertook a roughly $27 million wastewater expansion that created annual debt-service pressure; consultant Ron Smith proposed amending the TIF so incremental receipts and the TIF fund could be used to subsidize that debt service rather than draw on the general fund.
Select Board members and the consultant highlighted the wastewater expansion as the principal driver of the town's increased debt load and the urgency behind the proposed TIF amendment. One board member said the wastewater expansion was necessary to resolve capacity and environmental constraints and left the town with large annual payments.
A board member summarized the investment: "The infrastructure Ron keeps talking about was the $27,000,000 investment in our wastewater. That had to happen." Smith and other members agreed that because the original TIF did not explicitly include later eligible project costs, the town currently relies on the general fund to subsidize part of the debt service.
Smith proposed redirecting incremental TIF receipts and available TIF fund balance to cover the debt-service subsidy once the amendment is in place and approved by the state, with an audit and public hearing preceding the referendum.
