School district will see more money
Marysville schools could soon be getting a bigger cut from Coleman’s Crossing tax revenue.
Earlier this week, Marysville City Council held the first reading of an ordinance that would slightly alter the existing tax increment finance (TIF) agreement on the Coleman’s Crossing development. The Marysville School Board already approved the change at a meeting last week.
The original agreement was signed in 2005. Finance Director Justin Nahvi said, in a basic sense, the TIF’s formula is the area’s property tax rate multiplied by the amount of revenue-generated semi annually. That amount is then knocked down by 20 mils.
That final amount is what the schools receive. As an example, Nahvi said last year the district received $966,965, or 48.9 percent, of revenue generated by Coleman’s Crossing. Nahvi said under the new agreement, the schools will get “one or two percent more.”
Marysville Schools Treasurer Todd Johnson said under the new formula, using current valuation, the schools could receive an additional $130,000 next year.
Johnson initially asked the city to decrease the mil reduction from 20 to 10 percent. Nahvi said that would have left a negative balance in the city’s TIF fund, so the two entities decided on a lower rate.
“I told (Johnson) the math doesn’t work, we can’t accommodate that,” Nahvi said. “In playing with the numbers, we requested changing the reduction from 20 mils down to 14.”
Nahvi said the school district approached the city in April to request the city to work with them to reconfigure the TIF. The district noted at time of the initial signing, city and school officials committed to take another look in the future. The agreement included former Marysville Mayor Tom Kruse and former Marysville Schools Superintendent Larry Zimmerman.
“It said they would come back together as things developed in that area,” said City Manager Terry Emery. “That just kind of what we’re doing now.”
Nahvi said at the meeting city and school officials have been working together to reach the new amount. At the request of council member Mark Reams, Nahvi said he’ll bring the change to February’s Marysville Finance Committee meeting to discuss it further.
Johnson said the reason the schools had that 20 mil reduction in 2005 was due to state funding rules. If the district had brought in too much revenue from the TIF, the district would have received less money from the state.
“In essence, nobody would have been winning,” Johnson said.
Since then, the State of Ohio has changed how it decides school funding, so there’s no longer a reason for the 20-mil reduction.
Emery said that rate allows the city to generate income through the TIF for projects the city hopes to complete on the Coleman’s Crossing development. These projects include the upcoming $300,000 project to install a traffic light at the Fifth Street intersection at the entrance of the YMCA. The city hopes that light will help control traffic along Coleman’s Crossing, easing congestion.
In the future, funding could go to other signals at Industrial Parkway, Coleman’s Crossing and at the entrance into Wal-Mart in front of Honda Marysville.
“That could probably be a possible use,” Emery said.
Nahvi said in talks with Public Services Director Mike Andrako, the city could also put a third lane starting on Coleman’s Crossing at Delaware Avenue.
Johnson said the schools are comfortable with the change.
“I think it was just a good example of collaboration between the school and the city,” he said.