Town Manager Kevin Smith notified the sponsor of warrant article petitions to dissolve all Tax Increment Finance (TIF) Districts and revitalization districts, and to require a ballot vote to establish any new TIFs, that the Town Attorney has advised the article would be unlawful.
The petition’s sponsor, Richard Bielinski of 89 Hall Road, argues it’s a problem when the Town and Town Council make the argument that a TIF District doesn’t affect the tax rate.
“Any use of money, whether it’s a credit or debit to town accounts, affects the tax rate,” he said.
Per Bielinski’s article to dissolve all municipal TIFs, as reported previously by the Londonderry Times, any funds sitting in or due any Municipal Economic Development and Revitalization District holding account would be transferred to the general fund for the sole purpose of offsetting the tax rate.
Smith wrote in an email to Bielinski that when the Town enacted the Town Charter and installed the Town Council as its legislative and governing body, it conferred substantial authority.
Citing the Town Charter, Smith wrote Article 49-D:3 states, “The Town Council shall be empowered also to address all matters that general law requires to be addressed at the annual or a special meeting of a town, except those matters which by statute or charter must be placed upon the official ballot of the town.”
“The creation of a TIF is not an item that ‘must be placed on the official ballot of the town.’ Instead, when the Town voted to adopt RSA 162-K, which authorized revitalization districts, it also adopted RSA 162-K:5, which provides that ‘Upon a finding that such action will serve public purposes, the legislative body of the municipality may create, within its jurisdiction, development districts,’” Smith wrote.
Consistent with the authority allowed by RSA 49-D:3, the Londonderry Town Charter states, “Except as herein otherwise provided, the Council shall have all the powers conferred upon and discharge all the duties imposed upon town councils, town meetings, boards of mayor and aldermen, and selectmen of towns by law, except the adoption of a town budget, which prerogative is vested in the budgetary Town meeting.”
“In other words, the only real authority the Town Council lacks is the adoption of the town budget,” Smith wrote. “Because the Town Council creates TIFs via Ordinances, it is at least arguable that a group of citizens could submit a referendum petition to the Council asking it to reconsider the creation of a TIF. However, the referendum petition requires the signatures of at least 5 percent of the Town’s registered voters and must be submitted within 30 days of the passage of the Ordinance.”
Bielinski said it’s the Town Attorney’s “opinion” that his proposed articles would be unlawful.
“It’s my opinion they’re not,” he said. “What are they afraid of? Having a vote? People saying they want this done?”
Bielinski argued that the Council could choose to implement the articles if they wanted to do so. “They have to work for the voters,” he said.