City gets a clean check-up on tax incremental districts

The city of Medford is continuing to do well with managing a powerful economic development tool.

On Monday, Brian Reilly a consultant with the public finance advising firm Ehlers, gave members of the Medford City Council an overview of the six currently operational Tax Incremental Districts (TIDs).

Reilly explained that in TIDs, the county, school district and technical college district all agree to freeze the amount of tax revenues they will get from a parcel at a set level. Then, for a period of time up to 27 years, taxes on improvements to that parcel above the base level are kept by the city to pay off costs associated with the development.

The city of Medford has used these tools effectively for decades to spur economic development with the most successful one being associated with the Marathon Cheese plant in the city in TID 12. TID 12 was closed last year and the full value placed on tax rolls for those overlying governments.

State law limits the city to no more than 12% of its taxable value in TIDs and up until the closure of TID 12, the city had been over that amount. With TID 12 closing and even with the formation of TID 14, which encompasses the Pep’s Drive development, the city is currently at about 8%.

According to Reilly, the city’s existing TIDs are on pace to repay their development costs. He suggested the city may want to close several of the TIDs in the coming years as their debts are paid off and time for spending for new projects is expired. He explained that for a typical 20-year TID, the city is able to spend on new projects within the first 15 years, after that it is in repayment mode.

In addition, Reilly advised the city may want to take advantage of the rule that allows an extra year of TID payments to be kept for the city to do housing projects with a certain percentage of the funds needing to go to low or moderate income housing. The city used this option with TID 12 and has used the funds to promote housing efforts around the community.

“I would argue you are in fine shape,” Reilly said of the city’s overall management of the TIDs. He praised the city’s management and their restraint in “not getting too far out over your skis” with projects.

Mayor Mike Wellner gave the credit to the other local units of government at the county, school district and technical college district. “These will not happen unless we have the cooperation of their taxing entities,” Wellner said.

In other business, council members:

  Met in closed session and upon coming back into open session approved allowing a 6-month trial of remote work for Medford Police Department Administrative Assistant Sarah Serrano.

  Met in closed session and upon coming back into open session approved the pay and benefits for a patrol officer for a lateral transfer for Cody Kowalczyk from the sheriff’s department into the Medford Police Department.

  Approved setting the Independence Day fireworks display for July 4 in future years and to authorize Harris to negotiate with Big Daddy’s Fireworks and bring a contract back to the city council in the future.

  Approved spending $8,540 to purchase four “Badger Books” electronic poll books for use at elections. The devices will reduce the amount of time spent standing in lines for voters and cut nearly in half the required number of poll workers. When voting, people will have their license scanned by a poll worker and receive their appropriate ballot information to vote. It is projected to drop the required poll workers from 19 to between 9 and 11 people.

  Approved the purchase of a new Digger Derrick - Terex Commander 4047 at a cost of $374,037 for the electric utility to replace either the 1999 or 2004 trucks currently in service. According to Spence Titera, the lead time for the trucks is currently 2.5 years from when they are ordered to when they arrive. The electric utility will budget the funds for the truck in the 2024 and 2025 budgets to build up the amount needed.

  Approved buying a 2024 John Deere front end wheel loader from McCoy Construction Forestry out of Merrill for a cost of $349,280. The current 2013 John Deere 644K loader is almost 11 years old with 4,225 hours on it and is showing its age. As part of the purchase, the city will trade-in the current loader for a $140,000 savings bringing the net cost to $209,280, with funds to come from recycling and public works accounts.

  Approved a rate increase of 52 cents per month for solid waste and recycling to pass along additional expenses charged to the city under its service contracts with Advanced Disposal and increases in city labor costs.

  Approved the city’s enterprise fund budgets following review of the utility budgets and planned uses for revenues to improve the wastewater treatment, water utility and electric utility revenues.