OXFORD — The Board of Selectmen set Feb. 13 for a special town meeting on a tax increment financing agreement for the casino property on Route 26.

The plan is to put Tax Increment Financing on casino property and nearby land to shelter it from property tax increases to the state, county and the local school district. A separate article will amend an existing TIF on the Wal-Mart property to extend it from 12 years to the full 30 years allowed.

The funding would go to improvements to the town’s water lines, including paying developer Bob Bahre for a loan of about $1 million he gave to the town. The money was to help pay for a water line extension and a new 500,000-gallon reserve tank on Pigeon Hill to service the casino and town.

Town Manager Michael Chammings told selectmen the town could be hampered by state rules that a town can only have 5 percent of its land in TIF agreements. For Oxford, that means 1,340 acres. Chammings said the town should shelter land on Route 26 near the casino, which he said should increase in value due to proximity to the casino and new water and sewer service.

Chammings suggested the town could release TIFs on areas that haven’t yielded a profit for the town, such as the Business Park and the proposed Lowe’s location. He said the Robinson Mill TIF was another possibility, but said the TIF could be a tax incentive for businesses to move in.

Chammings said the town will post a copy of the meeting warrant Feb. 3.

The Feb. 13 meeting will be preceded by two public hearings, one on the casino TIF and one on the Wal-Mart TIF.

treaves@sunjournal.com

Note: A previous version of this story erroneously said a town can TIF 2 percent of its acreage. A town can TIF 5 percent, but no individual TIFed parcel can be more than 2 percent of a town’s acreage. It was a reporting error.

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