From the Johnson County Daily Journal:
Greenwood has used special tax district dollars to pay for widened roads, a fire station and a construction loan for a business expansion. Now officials are thinking of using the money for a new pool.
Pool committee chairman and Greenwood City Council member Thom Hord said the best way to pay for a new aquatic center would be to borrow money and repay it with special tax district dollars. The hope is that the city could take out a loan to pay for a multimillion-dollar pool without having to charge a new property tax rate or increase taxes, Hord said.
Instead, taxes from businesses in certain parts of the city would pay for a new pool. An attorney told city officials Wednesday that Greenwood could legally use special tax district money to build a pool that’s not actually in the tax-increment financing district because it could help lure more businesses to town.
Greenwood also wouldn’t have to bring the project to a referendum if it used special tax district dollars, Hord said. He said he’d prefer that an aquatic center not go to a public vote after library, jail and school projects all recently failed at the polls.
“It’s hard to pass a referendum in Indiana, with the history of the way referendums have gone,” he said.
http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/local_story/Dipping-into-tax-dollars-for-p_1343356975/
