Mount Prospect keeps up with neighbors when it comes to incentive offerings

Mount Prospect is keeping up with surrounding communities in offering incentives to attract and retain businesses, Community Development Director William Cooney said in a report to the village board this week.

Cooney said the findings come from a survey of incentives being offered in Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Des Plaines, Elk Grove, Palatine, Prospect Heights, Wheeling and Schaumburg.

The most commonly used are tax increment financing (TIF) districts, sales tax abatements and Cook County Class 6b incentives, under which assessments for industrial properties are lowered for 12 years, saving their owners on property taxes.

The communities, however, are more reluctant to enter into sales tax-sharing agreements with retailers - car dealers serving as the exception, Cooney said.

Mount Prospect has a downtown TIF and has recommended several 6b incentives, most notably in the Kensington Business District.

In addition, Cooney said, the village has seen success with a Business Improvement District created to pave the way for Randhurst Village. The BID functions like a TIF, he said, but also has a sales tax component, with abatements of several taxes.

"That was a very aggressive play," Cooney added. "It was done at a time when really nobody else was doing anything. We basically saved a million-square-foot shopping center and the region around it on Rand Road."

Mayor Arlene Juracek said she had concerns the village was too risk averse when it came to offering incentives to attract businesses.

"And what I get a lot of comfort in from your survey (is) we are familiar with all these tools and we use most of them in some fashion and we have used them very carefully," she said.

Trustee Paul Hoefert and others endorsed a cautious approach when it comes to offering incentives.

"Just generally, I'm not a believer in just giving away our tax dollars to attract business, especially in downtown," he said. "Sometimes people mistake activity, and buildings and things happening, for success."

"Direct giveaways ahead of time are always a huge risk, and we have always shied away from that, I think much to our credit, because we were able to survive a lot of the downturns," Juracek added.