(Estherville)– The city of Estherville is changing the way it finances economic development efforts. The city in the past has allocated money in the general fund for that purpose. Beginning in the upcoming fiscal year, City Administrator Penny Clayton says they plan to use funds generated through the city’s urban renewal, or Tax Increment Finance program…
“We are proposing to pay both the new economical development agreement that we have with the chamber through TIF funds and also our annual appropriation to The Corridor through TIF funds as well. And we set these up on a five year program. There are annual appropriations clauses with those so they’re not guaranteed those funds, we have to make that decision every year. But in order to not have to come back and publish a new notice of plan amendment each and every year, we decided it would be best to go with the term, and I picked the term that our contract with the chamber is because that seemed to be the most expedient way to do this.”
The Estherville City Council will hold a public hearing on the matter at their March 6th meeting. In the mean time, Clayton says she’ll be meeting with some of the other taxing entities such as the county and the school district to let them know of the city’s plans.
