The town of Edinburgh has already pledged to help Edinburgh Community Schools fund its first school resource officer, and town officials want to assist the district with any future needs using funds from tax increment finance districts.
Late last year, the town created four tax increment finance districts, commonly known as TIF districts, with the goal of encouraging local development. With a tax increment finance district, the town can collect property tax money from those geographic districts and use them for designated projects, such as cleaning up and restoring downtown or helping the school district with a financial need.
The four districts consist of land surrounding downtown Edinburgh, U.S. 31, Interstate 65 and the Center Cross area, according to town officials.
This year, five businesses opened in Edinburgh, but those businesses won’t generate TIF money for the town because they are not new developments since they took over space in existing buildings. Even when new businesses don’t factor into TIF, they are a good sign for the town’s future development, Town Manger J.T. Doane said.
“We’re reaching out to potential developers and potential investors and looking at ways to grow our industry and grow our businesses in town,” Doane said. “Across the town we want to continue to see growth and develop strategies with potential investors and developers and see that growth.”
The TIF districts are set to be in place until 2043.
Using the tax money from those properties, the town intends to improve street drainage, sidewalks and curbs, road and water infrastructure, remove blight and renovate existing buildings. The estimated costs of these projects range from $5 million to $25 million per TIF district over the course of their 25-year lives, according to town officials.
Although projects at Edinburgh Community Schools aren’t listed in the TIF agreements, the town fully intends to help the schools with financial needs once it starts collecting revenue from new property developments, Doane said.
“If there is a TIF district that has funding available to the schools we would, at that juncture, have a discussion with the school to evaluate and see what we could utilize to help the school,” Doane said.
The town is already helping Edinburgh schools fund its first school resource officer. The Indiana Department of Homeland Security granted the school district a $25,000 matching grant for the officer, which the district will need come up with a match $25,000 match for. The town agreed to fund the match using its own finances and fundraising efforts, such as a flag football fundraiser in August that raised $800, Doane said.
The town is also looking at putting together volleyball and 5k fundraisers for the school resource officer, which Doane hopes will be working at the schools by the end of the year, he said.
Another example of collaboration between the town and the schools is the community pool, which is on school property but open to anyone in town during the summer, said Doug Arnold, Superintendent of Edinburgh Schools.
Along with any money the town sends to the schools as a result of the TIF district, the district would benefit the schools because more people would move into the area, following new business and residential development. The more students go to Edinburgh schools, the more money the district gets from the Indiana Department of Education, he said.
“It benefits the town and the school corporation,” Arnold said. “People are moving in, we’re having more students. The dollars go with the students. If there are 20, 40 new families, if you have school-age kids it could benefit the school district.”
