St. Petersburg city staff will present ideas on how to expand the use of Tax Incremental Funds downtown to relieve the city’s budgetary burden. City Council member Karl Nurse wants to see whether there’s a way to tap into the portion of property tax money set aside for projects within the downtown TIF district for projects not traditionally considered under the program.
Particularly, Nurse is hoping to use the money for sewer infrastructure repairs.
“Every time you build a block, if you could pay for that replacement infrastructure would be a good thing,” Nurse said.
Council member Jim Kennedy specifically asked that the staff report include information on whether or not TIF could be used for sewer repairs. He also requested that the report coincide with the last Budget, Finance and Taxation meeting in March, when that committee is expected to address the city’s aging sewage infrastructure.
Even if the city identifies projects to fund through TIF, those items will still require county approval because the county serves as the financial steward for the TIF.
