AB 623

This bill changes the voting requirements for a tax incremental district's joint

review board (JRB), generally limits the amount of cash grants that a city or village

may make to a person for a tax incremental financing district's project costs, and

requires an additional item to be included in a tax incremental district's project plan.

Under the current tax incremental financing program, a city or village may

create a TID in part of its territory to foster development under certain conditions.

Currently, towns and counties also have a limited ability to create a TID under

certain limited circumstances. Before a city or village may create a TID, several

steps and plans are required. These steps and plans include public hearings on the

proposed TID within specified time frames, preparation and adoption by the local

planning commission of a proposed project plan for the TID, approval of the proposed

project plan by the common council or village board, approval of the city's or village's

proposed TID by a joint review board that consists of members who represent the

overlying taxation districts, and adoption of a resolution by the common council or

village board that creates the TID as of a date provided in the resolution.

Currently, a project plan must include a number of elements, such as

information regarding the kind, number, and location of all proposed public works

or improvements within the district, an economic feasibility study, a detailed list of

estimated project costs, and a description of financing methods for the project costs.

Generally, project costs are defined to include public works such as sewers, streets,

and lighting systems; financing costs; site preparation costs; and professional service

costs. Certain items are specifically prohibited from being considered project costs,

such as the cost of constructing or expanding certain municipal buildings and cash

grants to developers, although exceptions are allowed. For example, current law

authorizes a city or village to make cash grants to owners, lessees, or developers of

land in a TID if the grant recipient has entered into a development agreement with

the city or village.

Under this bill, the total of all such allowable cash grants may not exceed 20

percent of the total project costs of a TID, including financing costs attributable to

the grants, unless the grant recipient's development agreement with the city or

village specifies that the developer agrees to finance the cost of all public

infrastructure improvements within the proposed TID, and further agrees to receive

reimbursement for these costs solely from the payment of cash grants.

This bill requires the project plan to also include alternative economic

projections of the TID's finances and feasibility under different economic situations,

including a slower pace of development and lower rate of property value growth than

expected in the TID.

Generally, under current law, a JRB consists of five members, three members

who represent the TID's overlying taxation districts (school board, county, and

technical college districts), one member from the city or village that created the TID,