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• filETROVH100 <br /> Published Sunday,July 8,2001 <br /> As smoke clears, hard impacts ahead for tax <br /> increment <br /> Mike Kaszuba/ Star Tribune <br /> In the complicated world of public subsidies, there is good news for a $70 million <br /> plan to turn an old flour mill on downtown Minneapolis' riverfront into a museum, <br /> private offices and $600,000 condominiums. <br /> On the 495th page of the state tax bill, which Gov. Jesse Ventura signed a week <br /> ago, special language was inserted to spare the Washburn Crosby project from <br /> the sweeping changes to a widely used development tool known as tax- <br /> 1110 increment financing. <br /> But for most projects across the state using the subsidy, including those in the <br /> planning stages and Minneapolis' decade-old Neighborhood Revitalization <br /> Program, the news is jolting. <br /> The Legislature has significantly changed the world of tax-increment subsidies, a <br /> favorite funding mechanism for developers that has been used -- and, critics say, <br /> abused -- in the state since the 1970s. <br /> And in the week since the Legislature finished a special session, the 436 <br /> Minnesota cities that use the subsidies to entice developers have been left to <br /> ponder the severity of the problems they now face. <br /> There is still considerable debate over how wide-ranging the impacts are. Sen. <br /> Larry Pogemiller, the Minneapolis DFLer who co-chaired the conference <br /> committee on taxes, called it a "fundamental paradigm shift" for tax-increment <br /> subsidies. "I think there will be much less use of[the subsidies] in the future," he <br /> said. <br /> • <br />