Last night, the Albuquerque City Council rejected a bill
that would have provided needed guidelines and limitations on tax increment
financing in Albuquerque.
“We’re disappointed by last night’s vote. The bill would
have simply allowed the Council to set some needed ground rules—based on their
experience with SunCal and Mesa del Sol—that would have limited the abuse of
tax increment financing,” said Environment New Mexico Advocate Lauren
Ketcham.
Although originally used to promote urban infill
development, Tax Increment Development Districts (TIDDs) and Tax Increment
Financing (TIF) have been being used to subsidize “greenfield”
or sprawl development. TIDDs allow developers to receive up to 75 percent of
the district’s incremental gross receipts and property tax revenues for up to
25 years, which very little state or local oversight.
“Greenfield TIDDs can lure jobs, economic activity and
homebuyers out of the existing community and into fringe developments, which robs
our city’s core and contributes to sprawl and global warming,” said Ketcham.
“Cars, trucks and SUVs are already the fastest growing source of global warming
emissions and the leading source of smog-forming emissions in New
Mexico. Incentivizing developers to build on our
city’s fringe will only make these problems worse.”
This bill would have permitted TIDDs only within the1979
boundaries of the city, as defined in the Planned Growth Strategy, within a
metropolitan redevelopment area, and/or in a Reserve area in which City Council
has previously approved a TIDD. TIDDs would be allowed outside of the 1979
boundaries only if the TIDD were consistent with the No Net Expense Policy and
was limited to non-residential development only. The bill would also limit the
use of property tax money used to pay for TIDDs.
Councilors Michael Cadigan, Isaac Benton, Rey Garduño, and
Debbie O’Malley voted to support the TIDD reform. Councilors Ken Sanchez, Brad
Winter, Sally Mayer, Trudy Jones and Don Harris voted against the measure.
