Not all tax-increment financing is created equal

“RTA exposes flaws of TIF,” Nov. 3 editorial.

On behalf of counties across the state, I want to express strong support for The Denver Post’s notion of ensuring adequate accountability in the use of tax-increment financing (TIF). This is a message that counties, whose property taxes until recently were diverted for TIF projects without their consent, have been bringing to the General Assembly since before the TIF authorized by the Regional Tourism Act was enacted.

So I take issue with The Post’s assertion that counties have been “playing along” to the detriment of taxpayers. The same desire for accountability that The Post espouses was shared by the counties in seeking the passage of 2015’s House Bill 1348 and related TIF reform legislation to give schools, special districts and counties a real say in protecting the fiscal interests of taxpayers that do not live within a TIF project area. The city of Delta is on the verge of entering one of the very first TIF agreements under the new law, having convinced a wide variety of participants of the merits of the project and incorporating TIF performance measures that have not been seen before.

The Regional Tourism Act created a unique kind of TIF and The Post’s desire to bring further accountability to RTATIF projects is a laudable goal. At the same time, not all TIF is created equal and The Post is wrong to use examples from the RTA law to undersell the substantial reform that has recently been made in the use of locally driven TIF projects and that is just starting to bear some fruit.

Denver The writer is executive director of Colorado Counties, Inc.