Springfield joins statewide TIF effort

The town of Springfield is joining with five other Vermont towns and cities to try to convince the Vermont Legislature to lift its 2015 moratorium on future TIF districts for downtown infrastructure projects


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Springfield joins statewide TIF effort By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer | January 11,2017 SPRINGFIELD — The town of Springfield is joining with five other Vermont towns and cities to try to convince the Vermont Legislature to lift its 2015 moratorium on future TIF districts for downtown infrastructure projects. The Springfield Select Board voted unanimously Monday night to spend $5,000 toward its membership with the White and Burke consortium, a Burlington real estate firm which is working to get the TIF program reinstated. TIF stands for “tax increment financing.” Town Manager Tom Yennerell said that Springfield would be joining Bennington, Rutland, Newport, Montpelier, and St. Johnsbury in the effort. White and Burke’s mission would be “to convince the Legislature that it would behoove them financially to open up TIF districts,” Yennerell said. White and Burke is not a lobbying firm, he said, but a real estate firm that has worked successfully on other TIF districts in the state and what Yennerell called “creative problem solving.” The key, he said, is convincing the state that “long-term tax revenues will go up.” “It’s a huge tool we don’t have access to,” he said. The TIF districts has been used to provide funding for public infrastructure, an alternative to taxpayers voting and approving bond issues. Yennerell said that last year, during visits to other Vermont communities working on downtown revitalization projects, it was clear that TIF funding had been key in the revitalization projects in Barre City and St. Albans. Larry “Tre” Ayer of Springfield, a winter college intern working in Yennerell’s office, said that there were nine current TIF districts in the state, with two apiece in Burlington and Milton. Yennerell said that the TIF funding program had been instrumental in generating more than $60 million of investment in Barre and $45 million in St. Albans. The key, he said, is convincing the state that the investment of state money would be paid back by increased state taxes. Select Board member George McNaughton said he was in favor of having two TIF districts in Springfield, so that one could include the town-owned Park Street School, which, while in use as the school district’s offices, is largely vacant and has been for years. According to Yennerell and Ayer, TIF districts already in existence include Burlington downtown and the Burlington waterfront, Newport City, Winooski, Milton, the Milton downtown and Hartford. Ayer said that the Hartford district is the only one in southern Vermont. Efforts to reach Bennington town officials on Tuesday were unsuccessful. Yennerell said that, in addition to joining the White and Burke consortium, he has begun discussions with area legislators about the issue. Ayer, who has been researching the issue for Yennerell, said it was the 2016 Vermont Legislature that suspended the TIF districts. And he said White and Burke officials would be in town Thursday to meet with other organizations that have been working on the downtown revitalization effort, including Springfield On The Move, the Springfield Chamber of Commerce and the Springfield Regional Development Corp. The town manager said the money to pay for the town’s participation in the White and Burke program would come from the existing budget.