The independent review results

Omaha, along. (KMTV) – Several projects in the city use tax increases or TIF to enable them, but recently the use of TIF in the city of Omaha has been questioned, which led to an independent study.

• Mayor Jean Stothert said that since 2015 196 TIF applications with a total value of $ 584 million have been approved, which led to new investments of 4.6 billion dollars.
• Stothert said the TiF report from 2024 will be presented to the city council until May 1st.

Transcription of broadcast:
In September, the state auditor Mike Foley wrote a letter to the legislator on the use of TIF in the state. It was not long after that Senator Mike McDonnell wrote a letter to Mayor Stothert and asked for a break for TIF projects.

In order to be transparent and check what the city believed that it was going correctly, an independent review was completed by a national auditor that checked the city’s TIF program and process. It found that it corresponds to state law.

“These awards that we do for TIF would not happen that the development would not happen without the use of TIF, and there is no loss of income for taxpayers if we award TIF,” said Mayor Jean Stothert.

According to Stothert, 196 TIF applications have been approved at a total value of $ 584 million since 2015, which led to new investments of 4.6 billion dollars.

If you have been in the city center lately, you have seen the work for the future streetcar, a project that is financed by TIF income that is expected to come from development along the route.

“The tram continues and cannot be stopped, and why should someone do it,” said Stothert.

“But if it were stopped, all of these contracts that we have already awarded would be in arrears, because without the tram there is no TIF and there is no money to pay all the contracts that are already out there,” said Stothert.

And she says without the tram there, the development and future development will stop.

The mayor said that the TiF report from 2024 will be presented to the city council until May 1st.