County Board drafts letter opposing TIF for new Marshall housing project

The Lyon County Board of Commissioners have drafted a letter to the City of Marshall regarding the proposed establishing of a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District just off Highway 68 to establish the Tribeca Square Apartments Housing Project.

“Lyon County is not opposed to TIF districts used as a financing tool for qualifying costs to increase industry or productivity,” said the board’s letter.

The county board is urging the City of Marshall to close TIF districts when incurred expenses have been collected and recovered via TIF, instead of continuing to collect increments for the full duration of the district.

According to County Commissioner Charlie Sanow, the City of Marshall has collected over $3 million from the current TIF district.

“An additional $434,833 was captured for that district in 2017 and an additional $448,952 is scheduled to be captured in 2018,” he said.

“The Lyon County Commissioners question why the district remained opened for the maximum duration of that TIF district type when excess money has been going to the City of Marshall for a number of years,” said the county letter.

The county estimates the City of Marshall will have almost $4 million available.

“Instead of opening a new TIF district that would impact collections for governmental units for the proposed project, we suggest the City of Marshall use a portion of the excess collections on the Channel Parkway project,” stated the letter. The county also felt the, “Proposed TIF district would compete against local landowners for an additional 26 years.”

All commissioners voted to approve the letter to the City of Marshall.