In tie-splitting vote, Diny nixes TID extension

A proposal to extend a tax increment district on Wausau’s west side failed at Tuesday’s city council meeting.

The proposal to extend TID 7 by a year passed out of the city’s Economic Development Committee last week. 

The extension would have freed up nearly 2 million dollars for affordable housing projects.

During the debate, Alder Lou Larson said the city has already made progress in making housing more affordable and the money from closing the TID could go elsewhere. 

“I would much rather see the TID be closed and have the money be put towards our citizens public health and safety,” Larson said. “And when I say that, it could go to retaining our police and firefighters.”

Council president Lisa Rasmussen also opposed the extension.

She said the last TID they extended still has funding for affordable housing projects. 

“Our districts are healthy but there are districts elsewhere in the county that are not and or that maybe have not developed as quickly or the projects have not come to fruition as fast as those communities might have liked them to,” she said.

A TID, or a Tax Increment Financing District, is a form of economic development for cities. It sets a zone of taxable property to fund improvements. Then, as the value of properties grow, municipalities recoup that cost.

When a TID closes, its revenue goes back into the general levy and is redistributed to the remaining taxing jurisdictions.

Those include the school district, technical college, and county. 

“I think that this is an opportunity for us to be a genuine partner with those taxing jurisdictions by allowing the district to close on time that revenue will return to those taxing entities,” Rasmussen said.

The council was evenly split with 5 in favor and 5 against and one alder excused from the meeting. 

Mayor Doug Diny had to break the tie with a vote against the extension.

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