By Joseph Slacian
WABASH, Ind. – The Wabash Plan Commission on Wednesday, Aug. 1, amended the city’s Tax Increment Finance (TIF) district resolution, adding several parcels to the measure.
The move, part of a multi-step process, was done to help raise funds for $200,000 loan for 10X Manufactured Engineering.
Added to the TIF District was the former Spiece warehouse, where 10X is locating, as well as the medical office building near the new Parkview Wabash Hospital, the Lutheran Hospital medical facility, and two sites at Paperworks.
By including those properties in the TIF district, the city will be able to collect taxes on improvements to the sites. The taxes likely won’t be collected until 2020, Plan Commission attorney Doug Lehman told the panel, as the properties are assessed every Jan. 1
The assessment on Jan. 1, 2019, and those taxes aren’t made payable until 2020.
“The TIF can go back and capture property already improved, as long as it has not yet been assessed,” Lehman told the commission members. “You can’t go back and grab property that has already been assessed. Things like schools and libraries are already depending on that (tax) because it’s already been assessed.”
Jim Higgins, of the London Witte Group, told the commission that any improvements made to one of the sites after Jan. 1, 2018, will be included in the TIF district.
“Any improvements made past Jan. 1, 2018, are assessed in 2019 and subsequent years,” he said, noting that the taxes on the improvements are what is captured by the TIF.
However, before the resolution becomes final, it must be approved by the Wabash City Council following a public hearing, as well as the Redevelopment Commission and the Economic Development Commission, before being approved again by the council.
The city created the TIF district in 2010 to allow Cinergy MetroNet to lay fiber optic cable around the area. The district has a 25-year life span, and will expire in 2035.