Auburn’s tax incentive programs won’t suffer from a paperwork foul-up, according to the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development office.

There will be no harm as long as the city files applications and documents describing two city tax increment finance districts soon, according to James Nimon, development program director.

“As long as it was approved by the city council and they are comfortable with the designation, I can’t foresee any problems,” Nimon said.

Nimon confirmed that his department does not have any records of two key TIF districts in Auburn, one in the Auburn Mall area and another downtown. It’s the first time TIF paperwork has been lost or forgotten, he said. Nimon tracks a portfolio of 250 TIF districts across the state.

“You could say it’s uncommon,” Nimon said. “Normally, the communities keep a pretty close watch on the process because it represents a lot of money.”

The TIFs – tax increment financing districts – allow the city to take property taxes from the district and use them to pay for roadwork, utility upgrades and other improvements in the area or return them to developers as an incentive.

The districts are:

• TIF District 9, created in 2002 in the Auburn Mall area. It was originally designed to set aside up to $6 million over 20 years to pay for road improvements around the mall, Mount Auburn Avenue and Turner Street. It has not been activated, however, and is not collecting revenue.

• TIF District 10 was also created in 2002, to pay for road, sidewalk and infrastructure improvements downtown. It was designed to set aside $4 million over 20 years. Councilors approved a $5 million bond for a parking garage in 2004. Bond payments would come out of that TIF district and parking revenues.

Councilors approved a second TIF district in the mall area last fall. It returns roughly $1.75 million in property tax revenue from the Auburn Mall area to developer George Schott. The remainder of the property tax revenue on the land will be redirected into the same fund as TIF District 9, to help pay for road improvements in the area.

Nimon reviews every TIF district to make sure they comply with state guidelines. It’s a formality, especially if a municipality has created at least one TIF.

“We have the basic form we like all mapped out, so it’s usually just filling in the details,” he said.

Nimon said he discovered that he had no records for the two earlier TIFs when he was reviewing the new mall area TIF district. He contacted Auburn Economic Development Director Roland Miller in June to let him know.

He doesn’t know what happened to the documents, but doesn’t think it was misplaced in his office.

“My guess is, they were in a hurry to get it finished,” he said. “One person thought the other person was in charge of sending it, and it never got sent. I’m assuming it was just human error.”

Auburn officials said last week they planned to amend the TIF District 9, the mall area TIF, to change the boundaries. Miller said he would resubmit the downtown TIF at the same time.