April 24, 2023 at 12:18 p.m.
Minocqua town board, ad hoc committee on housing learn about TIFs
By Brian Jopek-bjopek@lakelandtimes.com
According to the League of Wisconsin Municipalities' website, the TIF process allows a municipality to pay for public improvements and other eligible costs within a designated area,
The future taxes collected on the TID's increased property value are used to repay the cost of the improvements.
Town chairman Mark Hartzheim said he requested a presentation because the town "doesn't have any experience with and never pursued it."
"We don't know much more than kind of general information about it so we thought it would be useful for both bodies to meet here because this is gonna be one of the things that is gonna factor into our consideration on what direction the town goes as far as trying to improve the labor and housing situation locally."
The guest speaker at the meeting was Mike Koles, executive director of the Wisconsin Towns Association, who made a TIF/TID Powerpoint presentation. Hartzheim also introduced Art Bahr, a community development specialist with MSA Professional Services who Hartzheim said has "a lot of experience working agreements with municipalities that have tax incremental districts."
One of those municipalities, Bahr later told The Lakeland Times, is the city of Antigo, where, with more of a manufacturing base than that of Minocqua, he said he's been involved in the development of several TIDs.
At the start of his presentation, Koles said he hasn't "had to talk about TIF for a long time but it's sort of like riding a bicycle."
"I studied this (TIF) in school and did some city administration work and dealt with it then," he said, adding that he earned his master's degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison "where one of the professors who was a primary player in bringing (TIF/TID) to the state of Wisconsin was the person I studied under."
Over the course of the next nearly 90 minutes, Koles and Bahr provided an overview regarding Wisconsin's TIF/TID program, established in the state in 1975 as a "mechanism for funding redevelopment and development" with the state legislature's desire at the time, according to one of the Powerpoint slides, of having "all the taxing jurisdictions that benefit from development share in the costs."
As the meeting progressed, it became apparent the TIF creation process has several, complicated steps and moving parts and, as Koles pointed out, some risk.
It also became apparent that while the Minocqua area, with its tourism-based economy, might be able to take advantage of the program to possibly help with some of the housing issues, as state law regarding establishment of TIFs is written, the program is geared more towards a municipality such as the city of Antigo with a manufacturing base as opposed to the Minocqua area, which, as Times publisher Gregg Walker said has the tourism industry as its "bread and butter."
At the end of the session, Minocqua public works director Mark Pertile asked Bahr about the timeline for TIF creation.
Bahr summarized the steps to be taken, from land parcel selection to various approvals by joint review boards following public hearings to ultimate approval of a resolution for the establishment of a TIF.
"Typically, four months is a fast pace," he said.
Brian Jopek may be reached via email at bjopek@lakelandtimes.com.
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