Wisconsin’s tax incremental financing (TIF) was originally intended to provide crucial assistance for urban redevelopment projects. Today however, it has grown into a program with responsibility for promoting all kinds of economic development across the state. This unchecked growth is not without side effects, as the current program may actually discourage urban redevelopment and increase the opportunities for misuse of the program. This report proposes a solution to these problems through three reforms that create a stronger tax incremental district (TID) classification system, remove TIF-based incentives for developing open land, and add incentives for stricter joint review board examination of TIF project plans.
Documents include both Full Report and Executive Summary.