In the last week of 2022, The Connersville Redevelopment Commission approved an outlined Tax Increment Finance (TIF) district with the intention of using the funding collected through the TIF for target redevelopment of the city.
At the time of the approval there were several letters from Fayette County Council, Commissioners and the Fayette County School Corporation submitted to the RDC asking them to reconsider or delay the process of approving the TIF, as to take time to better understand the affects the TIF could have on the taxing bodies in the community.
There was another meeting in the beginning stages of the year to answer questions about TIF that all of the aforementioned taxing bodies were invited to to ask questions. Though this did help to answer some questions, it did not put concerns to bed about the effects the TIF could have, or the means by which the district was established.
On the March 21 Fayette County Board of Commissioners meeting, and a special meeting of the Fayette County Council, each were presented with a letter of remonstrance already signed on behalf of the Fayette County Public Library and Fayette County School Corporation by their respective board presidents. That disputed the legitimacy of the established TIF district.
The letter, addressed to RDC President Jim Spence, Connersville City Council President Diane Phillips and Mayor Chad Frank, stated “(the) Economic Development Plan for the Connersville Economic Development Area I are void and without any legal effect.” The letter specifically focused on the legality of the Redevelopment Commission’s Board at the time.
“For various reasons, the Commission wasn’t properly constituted under Indiana Code chapter 36-7-14 at all times relevant to the purported adoption of Resolution No. 2022-02 and Resolution No. 2022-03,” the letter reads “As a result, the Commission could not adopt a resolution because the Commission didn’t have legally eligible and/or authorized Commissioners to vote on any resolution.”
Mayor Chad Frank explained that there were members on the Redevelopment Commission that did not live in the community and thus under code could not have a valid vote on the establishment of a TIF district.
“The right thing to do from my standpoint and the city’s side is to, we see that, we understand that, now we’re going to fix it by getting the right members on the RDC,”
Since the discovery was made, those who signed the letter of remonstrance stated in the letter the TIF district established in December was void and carried no legal weight.
The Redevelopment Commission met Friday to discuss the status of the TIF district.
“Due to the fact that it’s very unclear whether the board was proper, and unclear that some of the members were proper and because we need to get a more cohesive effort with the county and the schools on developing a TIF and do a better job of educating and understanding and talking to each other and working with each other I’d like to make a motion to dissolve the TIF and start over,” said RDC member Brad Colter.
The RDC then approved this motion and officially dissolved the TIF District that had been passed at the end of December.
Frank said that getting this right going forward includes leaving a school board member as a voting member of the RDC, and having city controller Adam Stone in the discussions to provide continued education in all things TIF.
There is not a timeline as to when the RDC could come forward with a new TIF district. Frank said the previous one, which has now been dissolved, had been in the works for several years. Adding he had no expectation as to if any future TIF districts would look the same or different than the now dissolved one.
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