| Question of TIF funds goes to state Attorney General |
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By: By MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer – April 14, 2008 – 3:00 pm
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State Rep. Donna Rowland (R-Murfreesboro) has asked Tennessee Attorney General whether Tax Increment Financing for the proposed Bible Park USA violates federal or state law.
Specifically Rowland asked, “can Rutherford County officials legally authorize the use of Tax Incremental Financing for a religious, privately owned business entity?”
SafeHarbor, LLC, has proposed building a $175 million-200 million, 275-acre biblically themed park in Blackman Community. The Rutherford County Planning Commission will consider the proposal Monday evening and the Board of Commissioners is expected to vote on the project May 15.
Rowland said the question was based on complaint from Blackman resident Joseph Dasarro, who requested assistance from the American Civil Liberties Union last month in regards to the Bible Park.
Dasarro asked the ACLU to investigate his complaint the county will violate the separation of church and state if it allows TIF funding based on sales and property taxes for Bible Park USA.
The legality of TIF bonds has also been raised in all the public hearings held so far in the Bible Park debate.
Future Development Committee member Bob Farris expressed concern that the use of county-based Tax Increment Financing could have possible First Amendment conflicts with the religious-based park. He then said he’d like to see an opinion before the issue is settled.
Earlier this month Rutherford County’s Industrial Development Board (IDB) found SafeHarbor, LLC’s plan meets state requirements and the developers qualify to tap into $29 million in TIF funds.
IDB also found Bible Park USA meets requirements for real property tax based Tax Increment Financing (TIF).
TIF financing is money used for developers to make an investment in a community, said attorney J. Thomas Trent Jr. of Nashville who spoke to the County Commission’s Budget and Finance Committee last week.
Bonds to finance projects are then issued through the Industrial Development Board. TIF money, generated from the incremental increase in the sales and property taxes over the present use of the property, is used to pay down the debt on those bonds.
Rowland specifically asked the attorney general to not “opine as to whether the proposed Bible Theme Park is ‘religious’ in nature,” but to focus on the legality of using Tax Increment Financing in relation to state and federal law for an assumed religious venture. |
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