Wheeling mayoral candidates voice concerns about TIF districts

Two of three hopefuls for the Wheeling village presidency weighed in on how the village could ease the burden of special taxing districts on other taxing bodies, during a Saturday candidates forum.

Wheeling has five of the districts, which are used to redevelop blighted areas. Once one is created, property taxes within it are frozen and any increases in property tax revenues are put into a fund to aid redevelopment and infrastructure improvements in the district.

That means school, park and library districts and other taxing bodies in the area lose out on any tax revenue increases due to improved property values for the life of the TIF districts. However, they do receive a portion of TIF revenues from the village yearly.

Incumbent village Trustee Patrick Horcher said the village needs to release individual properties from the TIF districts once they are developed.

"Every property that's improved increases the assets, resources of the TIF," he said. "We put in millions of TIF dollars on redevelopment. If you start surrendering those properties, you surrender the increment."

Horcher, 45, who's been on the village board 14 years, said it's something the village board has never done before because there was no consensus for such a move.

He said the village needs to be careful about which properties it chooses to take out of a TIF area since all five districts are contiguous for the purpose of allowing transfer of funds within. "If we surrender too many properties, it can hurt the other TIFs," he said.

Candidate David Kolssak, 39, a small-business owner and member of the Chicago Executive Airport board, said he doesn't know how the five TIF districts have affected area taxing bodies, but added, he would be willing to work with them to minimize the impact.

"I need to learn more about the intricacies of how the taxing bodies work together," Kolssak said. "How are we killing them? I don't know. I know we need to work better."

Kolssak said he is more concerned about the village using TIF funds as incentives for developers to redevelop certain properties. "We need to spend TIF dollars wisely," he said. "They (the village board) are about to approve a development at Dundee Road and Milwaukee Avenue that is going to totally bankrupt the TIF in that area, or put it in an 'I owe you' state, which is not uncommon."

Home to Fresh Farms International Market, that corner is expected to be redeveloped by the grocery chain with the village pouring millions of dollars from TIF funds.

"It needs to be done, but at what cost?" Kolssak said.

Kolssak said the village should spread TIF money around to bring new businesses into town rather than giving huge incentives to certain developers.

Incumbent village Trustee Judy Abruscato, who wasn't present at Saturday's candidate forum but was reached by phone, said the best way to help out area taxing bodies is to stop creating TIF districts in the first place.

"We need to just eliminate any more TIFs," said Abruscato, 75, a village trustee for 22 years. "What we have, I think, is sufficient to take care of our needs. The library, the school districts, and also the park district, they are getting TIF dollars yearly to put into their budgets. We are paying the districts the dollars at the end of the year as we promised."

Abruscato said she would be open to exploring the idea of releasing properties from existing TIF districts, if it is legal, but added, that would hurt the village's redevelopment efforts. "We should minimize what we have, and continue what we have," she said.