The Salem Grade School Board Thursday night unanimously approved writing a letter of support in favor of a 12-year extension for the Westside Tax Increment Financing District Two. That means the city only needs one more letter of support, from the Selmaville Grade School District, to have all taxing bodies on board so the proposed extension can be submitted to the state. The Selmaville Grade School meeting is scheduled for January 31st.
The grade school board had called a special meeting to deal with the topic due to confusion about the district at its regular meeting last week.
Salem Economic Development Director Lea Dellicarpini was at the meeting to explain the district’s purpose and its importance as a tool in her toolbox to help businesses and industries expand or locate new businesses.
“We do have to grow because that tax burden needs to spread out more across more people. Right now we have a shrinking population. Our tax burden isn’t getting any smaller. The only way that I really know how to address that in my role is to see if I can grow the tax base through expansion of homes and businesses.”
Dellicarpini says the TIF 2 district is working. It has helped with the construction of the new building for Jarco and The Cottages, and expansions at Americana, Howell Paving, and North American Lighting. The city is now utilizing TIF with a new company moving into the industrial park Bromley Excavating.
Salem Grade School Superintendant Dr. Leslie Foppe feels it is important they work with the city to try and turn around the population decline.
“We didn’t want to do anything that stops the growth of Salem. But we also wanted to be cognizant of being very careful with tax rates increasing because we had a lot of concerned taxpayers and community members here at the December board meeting. So that was something we had in mind as well, the tax rate going up. We wanted to know every possible angle of this to make the proper decision.”
Several board members who spoke shared similar sentiments.
