A new financial study found that Greenwood can afford to pay for an aquatic center and that turning over money meant for a pool to a school district would save most homeowners no more than $10 a year in property taxes.
Greenwood hired consultant O.W. Krohn and Associates to study the city’s plan to pay for a $10 million aquatic center with property tax dollars from tax-increment financing, or TIF, districts. The Westfield-based accounting firm looked at whether the city could use that money to pay for a pool and still afford other projects, what would happen if the city didn’t do the project and let other governments collect those tax dollars instead and what the impact would be on taxpayers.
The 55-page study found that the tax-increment financing districts will produce enough money over the next 15 years to pay for a pool, a new Interstate 65 interchange at Worthsville Road and other planned projects, although Greenwood could have difficulty offering another business an incentive as big as the one offered to a generic insulin-maker, redevelopment commission attorney Stephen Watson said.
Greenwood still would have enough money for most incentives, such as offering cash to businesses opening new offices or warehouses, he said.
A Greenwood city board wants more time to review a proposal for how to pay for an aquatic center at Freedom Park and whether it’s allowed under state law.
The redevelopment commission decided to take time to consider more than four-and-a-half hours of testimony about the plan to pay for a $10 million pool with property tax dollars from the city’s two tax-increment financing, or TIF, districts.
Board members heard arguments about how a pool could lead to more economic development, about how it couldn’t legally be paid for with that money if it weren’t in either TIF district and about how any financial impact would be dampened by the proximity of Perry Pool and the outdoor pool at the Baxter YMCA.
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