The Overton County Industrial Development Authority wants to adopt new recruitment incentives to attract more businesses to the county.
Authority Representative Shannon Cantrell said when a developer buys a property, its current tax value is set as a baseline. The employer could apply for a Tax Increment Financing incentive by submitting an economic impact plan for approval. After the project is completed and the property is reassessed, the increase in tax revenue is placed into a TIF fund and reimbursed to the developer over time to help offset eligible development costs. Cantrell said adopting a TIF policy could add another tool to incentivize businesses to come to Livingston.
“This is something that we just, we have not done before and taken advantage of,” Cantrell said. “And it just seems that it’s time for us to throw in a couple of additional incentives out there to, you know, get a little more business in the area.”
Cantrell said the authority could not adopt the policy without approval from the county commission. The commission will consider the request next month.
Cantrell said the county has only ever offered a Payment In Lieu of Taxes incentive.
” A PILOT typically incentivizes on the industrial side, and it is more geared toward workforce and bringing jobs into the community, and a TIF works to help with the recruitment of restaurants, retail, hotels, and things of that nature,” Cantrell said.
Cantrell said the TIF Fund is only for infrastructure and not for the construction of a development itself. She added that the business’s impact ishighly considered when deciding which businesses could receive a TIF incentive.
“We have to know whether, like, really, is it going to impact this community enough to do this for them?” Cantrell said. “And if so, then we will move ahead, and you all give us authorization, then we can take care of that, and the tax assessor can do what she needs to do to mkae all that work.”
The commission asked how the county collects any tax revenue from the property if the revenue is given back to the business owner. Cantrell explained what the county collects.
“They are paying the base taxes before they start it, and any additional assessments moving forward from that point, that will also be captured in,” Cantrell said. “They have to pay those taxes prior to being reimbursed. So if the taxes do happen to go up on that property during the time period that they have that TIF, they are still paying the taxes that are above that increment.”