Vermont Governor Phil Scott was in Winooski this morning to celebrate the pending closure of the city’s 20-year TIF district.
TIF, or Tax Increment Financing, districts allow municipalities to incur debt to finance infrastructure and redevelopment. Winooski created its district in 2000 and received state designation in 2003. The Winooski Downtown Redevelopment Project centered around the Champlain Mill, a former textile mill next to the Winooski River that had been renovated as a shopping mall but by the early 2000’s was largely empty.
The $175 million TIF district plan created new multi-story mixed-use buildings, a parking structure, refurbished older buildings, redesigned traffic patterns and installed new infrastructure.
Governor Scott says Winooski’s success with the TIF program is also a success for the state.
“Vermont’s TIF program helps communities spark development and infrastructure investments for the kind of results you see around us today," says Scott. "By financing improvements to public infrastructure which then helps attract private investment and development, TIFs have been critical to helping cities like Winooski and St. Albans grow and attract the workers, families and businesses we need throughout this state. These investments are very effective and give a great return like growing the grand list and increase the amount of revenue that goes to the Education Fund without raising taxes.”
The governor and officials spoke in Rotary Park in the center of a large and busy roundabout that 20 years ago was a parking lot anchoring the downtown.
Winooski Mayor Kristine Lott says the TIF improvements led to a rebirth of the downtown.
“The downtown redevelopment set the stage for our continued growth and success, including a new hotel that’s underway and a Main Street revitalization project that we’re kicking off this year," Lott says. "The new tax revenue generated has increased our municipal budget significantly allowing us to increase community services and infrastructure upgrades, continuing to build our vision of a multimodal city where you can live work and play all in this one square mile.”
Department of Economic Development Commissioner Joan Goldstein reported that the city has seen significant increases in sales, use, meals and alcohol tax collections from about $11.5 million in 2004 to about $40.5 million currently.
“Today we are honoring Winooski but there are many other examples: St. Albans and South Burlington and Hartford and Killington are right now developing and using the TIF to facilitate smart growth," reports Goldstein. "And we are so impressed by the utility of TIF that we’ve created a new TIF-like structure that we are presenting at the Legislature as we speak. It’s called Disaster Resiliency Investment Area and this TIF-like structure could help communities recover from the disaster.”
Winooski is scheduled to make its final TIF debt payment in May and officially close the TIF district in June.
