The Salem Grade School Board decided they didn’t have enough information at Thursday night’s meeting to make a decision on if they could support an extension of the City of Salem’s TIF Two District.
While several board members said they wanted to support the city, they didn’t feel comfortable casting a vote on something they didn’t understand including how it would impact the school district’s finances. They were also concerned about the lack of use of the TIF district in the past.
The only information the board had was an e-mail provided by the City’s Economic Development Director Leah Dellicarprini to Superintendent Dr. Leslie Foppe on the importance of the 12 year extension.
“TIF is one of Salem’s most viable tools for recruiting and retaining businesses. As a small town in southern Illinois we need to be able to compete with more attractive locations. We need to be able to provide incentives to developers. If they do not see investment in our town, it will shrink and cease to be viable. Over the last 20 years we have lost about 1000 people. This means the cost of running schools, city government, etc…has not decreased but the overall taxing body funding the bill has shrunk.”
In the e-mail Delarcapini also noted TIF district’s could be used to incentivize housing development, fund job training, and allow taxing bodies to work together on projects. It was not clear to the board why Dellicarprini was not in attendance.
After a motion to approve the extension failed to get a second, the board elected to put off a decision until Dellicarprini could be at a meeting to further explain the TIF District. A special meeting was set for five next Thursday evening for the presentation and vote. The vote of the Salem Grade School District is key because every taxing body that has property in the TIF need to provide a letter of support for its extension. The Salem Community High School Board and Selmaville School Board are also scheduled to take votes next week on letters of support.
In other action, the Salem Grade School Board hired Marilyn Henson as Hawthorn Library paraprofessional and Katrina Dial as part-time cook.
