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Bellevue is among five Nebraska communities with Good Life districts, where private developers get tax incentives when they bring in economic opportunities. The city isn’t waiting for private developers. Bellevue is planning a waterpark and retail center to cash in on those tax benefits that would otherwise go to private developers. Dale Johnson followed the money with the help of Bellevue’s Economic Development Director Harrison Johnson.
Harrison Johnson: A good life district is a state designated geographic area in which the state sales tax goes from 5.5% and is reduced to 2.75%. And most good life districts throughout the state, the private developer is the applicant, meaning that the private developer then can apply for an economic development program in which the citizens vote to get that program, and then the then the state will collect that 2.75% and then give that back to the developer to help cover costs of infrastructure, cover costs of construction. Bellevue is unique because we are the only one in the state where it is a city-led applicant Good Life District where we, the city, will be the recipient of that 2.75% back that we will then use to develop the streets, the roads, the amenities for the actual Good Life District for the entertainment options. So you’ll see things like water features and parks and things like that that we can then fund within inside the Good Life District. But also the city will then use those funds for the benefit of all of its residents, specifically the City Council and the mayor want to reduce its property tax burden. So that is the unique part about the Bellevue, Nebraska Good Life District…