24-RESIDENTIAL TAX ABATEMENTSItem No. 24
memo�andum
TO: Mayor & Council
FROM: John Godwin, City Manager
SUBJECT: RESIDENTIAL TAX ABATEMENTS
DATE: February 19, 2013
BACKGROLTND: Last summer we discussed revisions to the City's Policies and Guidelines for
Granting Tax Abatements, and Kent McIlyar and I drafted a revised policy document that we
believed modernized our existing manufacturing and industrial tax abatement guidelines, and
included new criteria to allow the City to start a residential t� abatement program for
residential areas of the City in need of economic development. However, the PEDC Board,
County and Paris Junior College preferred to stick with the existing Tax Abatement Policies and
Guidelines that do not provide for residential tax abatement. As a result, we backed away from
further discussion on residential tax abatements.
STATUS OF ISSUE: Now that PEDC has brought forward the last of the industrial/commercial
tax abatement agreements that they were working on last year, we wanted to check back with
the City Council to gauge your interest in creating new policies and guidelines to adopt a
residential taa� abatement program for the City of Paris. Such abatements could be very limited
in amount if the council chooses, and also could be very narrow in scope (limited to a specific
area of the city for example) or city-wide. We believe that a residential tax abatement program
could prove a useful tool for encouraging new investment in existing housing as well as new
housing construction. City Attorney McIlyar will address this issue with you on February 25.
BUDGET: NA.
RECOMMENDATION: Provide input and direction to staff to develop policies and guidelines
for development of a residential tax abatement program for the City of Paris.
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