(Courtesy of Omaha Streetcar Authority)
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to add comments from Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert.
OMAHA — More than a half-billion dollars in property tax collections were directed during the past five years to fund urban redevelopment across Nebraska — marking a “remarkable increase” in tax-increment financing use that has sparked a warning from State Auditor Mike Foley.
In a 26-page advisory letter Tuesday to Nebraska lawmakers, Foley said that growing use of the economic development incentive called TIF risks further upward pressure on “skyrocketing” local property taxes.
“Count me a skeptic if anyone tries to claim that the rapid escalation in TIF-funded projects has nothing to do with the ever-higher property tax obligations in our state,” the auditor said in a related media release.
Omaha streetcar project highlighted
Foley offered examples of how sometimes “loose and inconsistent” interpretations of governing statutes allowed cities “not only to accumulate significant amounts of unwarranted TIF proceeds” — but also to engage in activities he said pose legal concerns.