Taxing dilemma: Special districts siphon taxes for development

Businesses have spent millions of dollars to build warehouses, strip malls and medical offices on Greenwood’s east side and to renovate stores around the mall.

But none of the property taxes they pay on new or improved buildings go to libraries, schools or other local governments.

Greenwood has been collecting all those tax dollars and using them to widen roads and pursue other projects aimed at creating infrastructure that will lure more businesses and jobs east of Interstate 65 and to the area around the Greenwood Park Mall.

Over the past five years, the city has collected more than $24 million in its two tax-increment financing, or TIF, districts.

The Greenwood Redevelopment Commission, which oversees Greenwood’s two TIF districts, ended last year with more than $10.8 million in the bank.

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