09-10-18 Community Investment - Laserfiche WebLink

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®CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK Mr. Mueller stated, Yes, our wages have been growing faster than the national average over the past couple of years. Also,we want these investments to succeed, so we don't try to create unrealistic goals. Sometimes when they come,they are under promising because there are a lot of uncertainties. Councilmember Karen White asked Mr. Mueller to share the extent of the conversation from his meeting with the other councilmembers and the Assessor. Mr. Mueller stated, Before that meeting, we didn't have the full appreciation of the timeline. Even if you are on schedule for an eighteen(18) month project with a two (2) year designation period, you are still likely to blow through that deadline. Councilmember White asked, Are you saying that we may need to look at the length of it differently? If so, what would that look like? Mr. Mueller responded, One (1) idea is to start with a longer timeline and designation period knowing that the process takes a while to actually work, even when projects stay on schedule. Developments will always face issues and potential delays, so we may have to come back over time. This would only apply to tax abatements this year forward, so there are still probably some in the queue from 2017 and earlier. 2015 was a peak year for the number of tax abatements. Councilmember Jake Teshka stated, So it was a peak year in the number of investments. I just want to clarify that we're extending the period for which they can complete the project. That is what is up for the vote. Mr. Mueller answered, Correct. We're not extending the abatement period itself,we are just extending what improvements can qualify. We're just trying to capture the original agreement that we had for the project. Councilmember Teshka stated, So it's that increase in value that is being abated, it's not like we're losing money on any of these things. Mr. Mueller stated, Right. It would be better to call it a tax phase in. The county calls it a tax phase in. In our code and elsewhere, we call them abatements. Councilmember Tim Scott stated, This is a proactive process. You guys are going to do this every year? Do you have timelines where you're going to sit down with the Assessor's Office to review them? We might be seeing this type of thing before Council every year, where we haven't in the past. Oftentimes its "Oh by the way..." This is like that but it is also proactive. Do you feel that we should just write this in the schedule for next year now? Mr. Mueller stated,As you know,there's the CF-1 that is due. Sometimes people forget to submit them after we send reminders. When we are doing the tax abatement report, sometimes we realize they forgot to send them in, so we'll always have those. As part of the annual process, we review it and look at the assessed value coming in. We don't get the Form 11 until the summer, after we submit the annual tax abatement report. We don't know whether the full value has been reassessed until later in the year. EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building j 227W Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 If 574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 j www.southbendin.gov 5