Town Manager Kevin Smith, responding to questions posed at the Budget Committee meeting of Sept. 25, said the TIF (Tax Increment Financing) district in the Pettengill Road area was the only TIF district in town.
Budget Committee member Gary Vermillion, as previously reported in the Londonderry Times, questioned whether there were TIF districts on Harvey Road and for Home Depot.
“There are no other TIF districts in town except the one created last fall for Pettengill Road,” Smith said. “If it were not for that TIF, there would be no road being built and no businesses coming in up there. They (the businesses) saw the TIF district creation as a private and public partnership and realized Londonderry had skin in the game. Prior to the TIF being formed, there was no movement to build up there.”
Concerning taxpayer benefits from the TIF, Smith said, “The monies go into the TIF district, but they go to the general fund to offset the tax rate after a maximum of three years. The Town Council can change that to sooner if it chooses to. Whatever is not spent on the infrastructure for Pettengill Road goes to the general fund. In this case we have UPS building half the road, Tamposi-Nash building the other half, user fees and money already set aside for sewer putting in the sewers, and all the town has to do is put in a traffic light, which the TIF is paying for, and the town gets $1 million in revenue from the district. I call that a win.”
Smith said misinformation may be causing the confusion, but emphasized that the town general fund will be getting money from the TIF to offset the tax rate now that Pettengill Road is being built and businesses are locating there.