Title

"Cover Story" piece on tax increment financing (TIF), a complicated program that

Authors

Al Diamon

Source

Casco Bay Weekly

Date

3-4-1999

Pages

10, 11, 12, 13

Abstract

"Cover Story" piece on tax increment financing (TIF), a complicated program that allows new or expanding companies to avoid paying all or most of their property taxes, which is becoming increasingly popular with municipal officals desperate to attract development. The Maine Chamber and Business Alliance calls it the most effective economic development tool that municipalities have. Created by the Legislature in 1985, TIF was intended to funnel a portion of the property taxes created by new developments into a fund to pay for public infrastructure improvements required by those developments. But the law was changed in 1993 to allow municipalities to return property-tax dollars directly to new or expanding companies. With examples of how the law has been used to pry hundreds of millions of dollars from the hands of local tax collectors statewide, with special focus on the relationship between TIF and development in the Greater Portland area.

Subjects

Tax increment financing

https://digitalcommons.portlandlibrary.com/cbw_1999/10/

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