A Tax Increment Financing district proposed by West Dundee for the corner south of Spring Hill Mall is moving forward.
That’s what Elgin’s Courier News reporter Rebecca O’Halloran wrote about Tuesday.
As McHenry County Blog pointed out early in its existence, virtually any property can be qualified for TIF district subsidies.
Our home in Lakewood, complete with major 1998 addition, could be declared “blighted” for TIF district purposes.
Our home does not meet current building requirements. The headroom for the stairs to the second floor is not high enough. I guess people were shorter in the 1920’s than they are now.
That’s just one of the many flaky criteria that could lead to a property being declared “blighted.”
In any event, if Huntley’s Prime Outlet Mall could be put in a TIF district when it was an empty field, truly anything could be declared eligible.
The problem is that such TIF districts push up tax rates on everyone living outside the district.
Crystal Lake Grade School District 47 Superintendent Ron Miller pointed out that tax shift to Crystal Lake authorities.
He told the city council that his school district would not lose any money if Crystal Lake froze real estate assessments for his district and other local tax districts.
That’s because District 47 and my guess is all other tax districts are beneath their maximum tax rates.
That’s because assessments have increased faster than the Consumer Price Index virtually every year since the Property Tax Cap went into effect in the early 1990’s. When that occurs, a tax district’s tax rate is forced down.
In the case of West Dundee, School District 300 will not lose any money if West Dundee’s proposed tax district passes.
The losers will be all of District 300’s taxpayers located out of the tax district.
So, is District 300 fighting to keep its homeowners’ tax rates down?
Not like the Richmond Nippersink Grade School District put up when the Village of Richmond tried to put most of downtown, plus a lot of a golf course in one.
West Dundee’s presentation of its consultant’s study will occur on August 18th at Village Hall.
At that time representatives of all local tax districts are allowed to vote to disapprove the TIF district.
All such an action would do, however, is force the West Dundee Village Board to obtain an extraordinary majority to approve the TIF district.
On August 20th a public hearing will be held at Village Hall, starting at 7 PM.