New Carlisle received a boost last week when the St. Joseph County Common Council approved an expansion of a tax increment finance (TIF) district. The expansion adds 378 acres and 34 properties, helping the town improve its infrastructure, particularly utilities and hiking trails.
In April, New Carlisle was named the home of a new Amazon Web Services Data Center. The TIF expansion is expected to generate funds for new water and sewer improvements in the area.
Council Member Bryan Tanner and Bill Schalliol, the county’s executive director for economic development, explained the purpose of a TIF.
“The point of TIF,” Tanner said, “is to effectively have collateral to finance against. It’s not that the developer or the owner of the property after the baseline is set for TIF gets a tax break. It’s just a dictation of where that tax money goes to. If not for TIF, some of the infrastructure, some of economic development, some of the other opportunities that we need, could not happen.”
Some attendees opposed the expansion, including Clay Township resident Steve Francis.
“When Amazon is designated as a taxpayer in the TIF, then you’re locking up those funds,” Francis said. “It’s great to have new sewers and water out in the area. I commend that, but we’re sitting in Clay Township, all the way over to Granger, and all the way down into Mishawaka, with failing septic systems. We don’t have sewer systems. Why? Because there’s not the funds to do so.”
Council member Amy Drake also expressed concerns about overusing TIFs.
“It just seems that we get to a point where there’s so much money for the redevelopment commission,” Drake said. “They are not elected to make decisions on the funding. It’s one of my issues.”
After considering all perspectives, the council voted 7-2 to approve the TIF expansion.