Are Schools Impacted

The schools lose no income from most TIF districts. In fact, the reason so much money becomes available for use in TIF projects stems primarily from the fact that when the TIF district is formed, the State of Ohio increases its financial support to the school district. This support is the reason why although the school district may ordinarily be 60% to 70% of the property tax, it only takes a reimbursement from the TIF district of about 20% to make the school district “whole.” The 30% to 40% of the payments to the TIF in lieu of taxes that otherwise would have gone to the schools becomes the single largest contribution to the TIF fund; and the school district experiences no loss in revenue.

There are two TIF’s in the county that are not currently reimbursing the
Lakota School District.

  1. In 1990, West Chester Township formed the Union Centre Boulevard TIF to provide the funds needed to build the Union Centre interchange and create other significant improvements in the area to foster commercial development. At that time, state law did not sanction reimbursing the schools. The township formed the TIF only after discussions with and the full support of the school district to use all of the funds for TIF improvements in what is now the Union Centre interchange area. This TIF has been so successful that 175 acres have been removed from that TIF and placed in another TIF that fully reimburses the school district.
  2. Butler County has the only other TIF that is not reimbursing the Lakota School District. Several years ago, Butler County formed the TIF district that encompasses all the new development along Cox Road near the VOA and into Liberty Township’s Liberty Town Center. Although the school district approved the TIF believing that the county had agreed to fully reimburse them, it recently became aware that the county did not intend to pay the school any revenue until the eleventh year of the TIF.
There is no free lunch

Because the rest of the tax agencies do lose the increased tax revenue as the business properties increase in value because of the infrastructure improvements, it is very important that considerable thought and study are employed before going forward with a TIF project.

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