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<br /> <br />Who Benefits From T1F <br />Cities, counties, school districts, states, and citizens ultimately all benefit from the use of <br />tax increment financing, through increased property valuation and an expanded property tax <br />base. <br /> <br />TIF districts actually create money for school districts and other taxin~l entities by <br />developing a solid tax base that will help fund them for years to come (Healey and McCormick, <br />1999). After development of a project is complete, and the TIF district expires, local taxing <br />bodies realize a budget windfall, as they receive much higher revenues than they would have <br />without the TIF-funded development. As Healey and McCormick (1999) noted, "TIF does not <br />take a bigger piece of the taxation pie; rather, it creates a bigger pie." <br />Opponents to tax increment financing frequently state that all levels of government share <br />the cost of tax increment subsidies. This assumes that the development would have occurred <br />without the tax increment assistance. Yet the "but for" test requires that any development would <br />not occur without TIF. <br />Cities. Cities benefit in a number of ways. By creating a TIF district, a city is able to <br />finance public infrastructure, site assembly, and site preparation costs without the direct <br />allocation of city development dollars. <br />Blighted and deteriorating areas increase the demand for city police and fire services. <br />By improving these blighted and deteriorated areas, cities also reduce the costs of police and <br />fire services to these areas. <br />Once a tax increment district is decertified (i.e., its assessment is unfrozen), the full <br />assessed property value is shared by all taxing jurisdictions. The general fund of a city will thus <br />experience an increase in its general property tax revenue when these properties are <br />decertified. <br /> <br />8 <br />