Smithfield: Tri-Valley school board members were among the roughly half-dozen people who spoke out against tax incentives for Smithfield’s proposed relocation during a planning commission meeting Wednesday.
Why it matters
- The planning commission was the first public entity to take action on a proposed nearly $90 million tax-increment financing (TIF) district to help offset construction costs for a new, $1.3 billion pork processing plant in Foundation Park. The commission voted unanimously to advance the proposal to the City Council.
- City and economic development officials have said a TIF is one of the only economic incentives they can offer Smithfield, which employs about 3,200 people, noting that it wasn’t a guarantee that the company would stay in Sioux Falls.
- But two school board members from Tri-Valley, the district that’d be impacted by the TIF, said they weren’t contacted at all during the year-long behind-the-scenes planning process between Smithfield, the governor’s office, the Sioux Falls Development Foundation and the city.
“Not one of us was contacted beforehand … It’s very disheartening the way it worked out,” board member Jeff McAreavey said. “A good neighbor would come to the actual other entity involved, and there’s none of that happening.”
Following the announcement, the city began releasing details on the TIF plans, which would use additional property tax revenue at the new Smithfield facility to fund construction costs – namely, the in-house wastewater treatment.
The Smithfield building is expected to generate an additional $4.5 million in property tax revenue, which would mean close to $3 million in additional revenue for the Tri-Valley School District each year.
- With the TIF in place, though, that extra $4.5 million will go back to Smithfield for either 20 years or until they hit their $89.9 million in reimbursement.
Tri-Valley school board member Mindy Hill urged the planning commission to consider students before approving the TIF…