The Assembly Ways and Means committee has passed legislation for numerous bills that are part of the tax increment financing (TIF) bill package. The package comes from recommendations from 2014 Legislative Council Study Committee on the Review of TIF.

During the committee, Assembly Bill 136 had a delayed committee vote due to amendments that were offered by Representative Samantha Kerkman (R-Kenosha). If passed, AB 136 would increase tax increment district value increments to total equalized value of taxable property in a city or village from 12 percent to 15 percent. The amendment would limit any city or village to 12 percent if the city or village:

• Contains a TID whose value increment in a year has declined at least 25 percent from the district’s highest value increment, or;
• Contains a TID that allocates positive tax increments generated by that district to another TID.

However, the amendment failed on a bipartisan 9-3 vote. The bill passed the committee, unamended, 10-2.

Other bills passed by the committee are detailed below:

AB 131 – Makes several technical changes including:

• Modifies the industrial zoning requirements to only apply to industrial use tax increment districts;
• Changes the maximum review period the JRB has to approve a resolution on a TID from 30 days to 45 days;
• Amends the notice requirement of the planning commission from a class 2 notice to a class 1 notice when it comes to announcing a notice of amendment;
• Deletes obsolete references in the current statute.

AB 132 – Requires a standing Joint Review Board to be established in order for a TID to be created, and remain in existence during the lifespan of the TID. In addition, this bill modifies annual reporting requirements, incorporates penalties for not reporting annually and repeals the DOR process to review industry-specific town TIDs.

AB 133 – Allows any type of TID to be a recipient TID and use tax increments. In addition, this bill excludes small taxing jurisdictions (such as lake, sanitary, or public inland lake districts) from donating to tax increments and removes these entities from the tax increment calculation.

AB 135 – Removes the restriction that property standing vacant may not comprise more than 25 percent of the area in a TID. In addition, this bill removes the requirement that all municipal owned land within a TID be assessed for property tax purposes and put in the base value calculations.

All the bills above are now waiting to be considered by the Assembly. All companion bills, except AB 136, have been passed by the Senate.