According to Maine law,

cities can set aside a portion

of property tax revenues

in TIF districts.
By Scott Taylor
Staff Writer

AUBURN – Councilors will review Auburn’s special development Tax Increment Financing districts Monday.

City Manager Pat Finnigan said councilors are scheduled to look at the money generated by those districts and how it’s spent during their budget workshop Monday.

“We’re really trying to look at all of the TIF revenues and explain how the process works,” Finnigan said.

“We want to provide all background information an elected official needs to make some good decisions,” he added.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Auburn City Building.

According to Maine law, cities can set aside a portion of property tax revenues in TIF districts. In some cases, that money is given back to the business as a way to encourage it to invest in Auburn.

For others, the money is collected to pay for public improvements.

Auburn has eight active TIF districts, Finnigan said.

The newest is the Downtown Area TIF, which is designed to collect 40 percent of all new downtown property taxes to pay for Auburn Downtown Action Plan for Tomorrow improvements.

Those include building sidewalks, green space and creating incentive loan programs to entice businesses to the area.

Finnigan said councilors are also scheduled to review the city’s debt and insurance policies. Both debt payments and insurance are driving the city’s budget increases, according to Finnegan.

staylor@sunjournal.com

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