07-20-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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• Jim Ericson, the city's community development director, said the city is now racing to try to meet a state-mandated Aug. 1 deadline to have key components of the project in place. Although the Legislature's changes were substantive, it did act to protect so- called projects in the pipeline -- like the Mermaid -- that were about to move forward based on calculations using existing law. And, in a significant late move, it also sweetened a state grant fund for tax-increment projects affected by the tax changes. For new projects, Aug. 1 is now the magic date. Any proj ect that issues bonds or has a binding contract and has applied for certification by Aug. 1 has access under the new law to technical, but important, financial advantages. They include the ability to obtain expanded "pooling" authority to use money from other city tax-increment proj ects to cover a particular tax-increment deficit and the potential to access the new grant money. The law also allows for the use of a • special deficit authority to adjust the local tax rate and select a more favorable fiscal-disparities payment, an annual transfer of money from metro area cities with fast-growing commercial-industrial tax bases to those that have had less growth. Next year, the state will make $91 million available in grant money. In all years after that, the annual total will be $38 million. "Redevelopment will be much more difficult to do," said John Cox, Champlin's deputy city administrator. "[But] our perspective is what was done was historic, was significant and was necessary ... unfortunately, it had impacts on tax increment." With 18.36 percent of its property-tax base in tax-increment projects, Champlin is one of the larger users of the subsidies in the metro area. Cox said the legislative changes may mean delays for Mississippi Crossings, a proposed restaurant, marina and retail project near the Anoka-Champlin bridge that would use the subsides to acquire more land.