AUBURN – A sidebar in Thursday’s package on Best Buy explaining how proposed traffic improvements in the Auburn Mall area would be paid for contained some miscalculations. Under the TIF agreement between developer George Schott and the city, once he brings in $5 million of new retail property, he can begin recouping some of his development costs on a tiered system.

In the example cited, if he brings in a new store with an assessed valuation of $1 million (and he’s already met the $5 million threshold), the new property would generate $21,000 in property taxes based on a mill rate of 21. Of the $21,000, 30 percent – $6,300 – would be returned to Schott and the remaining $14,700 would be put in a fund to pay off the city’s bond for traffic upgrades until the debt is retired. After that, the tax money goes into the city’s general fund.

Once Schott reaches $11 million of new assessed property, the rate he gets back goes up to 35 percent and once it exceeds $15 million, he gets 40 percent. The TIF arrangement continues until $1.75 million of Schott’s initial investment is recouped, or 15 years pass.

The information was incorrectly reported by the Sun Journal.