While there is still more that needs to be done before it’s official, Knox City Council members took action this week to extend two of the city’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) areas.
City officials have been going through all the necessary steps in order to have the process finalized by June 30th. While a lot has been done up to this point, there is still more that has to happen according to Mayor Dennis Estok.
Estok explained, “We still have a long way to go. I mean, we still have to have a public hearing on it, we have to notify all the property owners and all the taxing units that are involved.”
The proposal to extend two TIF areas within the city of Knox has already come before the Starke County Commissioners and the Knox Planning Commission. It received a favorable recommendation from both entities.
The city council had two resolutions to consider during their meeting Tuesday night. One was related to the TIF redevelopment area in downtown Knox and the other one had to do with the TIF area in the Industrial Park.
According to the documents, TIF areas are established for the purpose of capturing property taxes generated from the incremental assessed value of real property located within the designated area.
Some authorized uses of those funds include the purchase or lease of fire department equipment as well as the repair or maintenance of signage.
Updated language was included in the resolutions to allow for the purchase of police equipment as well. Officials also added new language to say that in addition to maintaining and repairing existing signage, the funds can be used to buy new signs.
Mayor Estok noted that TIF money can also be used to help extend city utilities out to the areas and for local-matches when applying for grant funding for projects related to a specific TIF area.
Both resolutions were unanimously approved by the council.
You can view both documents in Tuesday’s Knox City Council Packet.
