The Tiff Over TIFs
“In the last three years, some big building projects in Sioux Falls have gotten an extra incentive from the city: Tax Increment Financing.
It’s a big name for big bucks that are reimbursed to the developer when it comes time to pay property taxes on new projects. In the last three years the city named as many TIF Districts as it did in all of the 20 years prior. Some say TIFs are necessary for development, but others question how they’re used and whether they’re fair.
The building boom in Sioux Falls includes millions of dollars in projects ranging from a hotel to new office building to a sports complex to a major retailer. Every one of these projects received a tax break in the form of a TIF: Tax Increment Financing.
“We had to clean up the site, number one. We had to build public parking which is underneath the CNA Building and clean up badly contaminated land that the city sat on where their parking was; all that takes money,” Developer Craig Lloyd said.
Developer Craig Lloyd has some $85 million in projects that got TIF to offset costs. Lloyd has four of the nine projects that received TIF in the last three years. It’s the sharp increase in TIFs, including those outside of downtown, that has some critical of the incentive. “
Kennecke, Angela. Keloland 1 November 2013.