The CCSD vote could make or break Union Pierce | Educational laboratory

But this idyllic image hangs in the balance. To make any improvements at the site, the city is asking the schools and county to redirect 30 years of tax revenue to the TIF district.

Here’s how a TIF typically works: A city identifies a blighted area it wants to revitalize.

To pay for infrastructure projects, the city is issuing bonds for an amount equal to the projected cost of the new property tax to be generated over 30 years, essentially borrowing from taxpayers. It freezes current property tax rates for the duration of the project.

If it participates, the school district doesn’t sell bonds or go into debt, only the city takes on that burden. So the school district’s risk is waiting 30 years and seeing little (or no) return if the redevelopment fails, leaving taxpayers on the hook. Such failure is rare; This has never happened in Charleston, Prentice said.

The new tax revenue collected as a result of these development efforts — the “surcharge” — is used to pay down the city’s debt. Then, when the term ends, all the new revenue goes into the bank accounts of those participating in the TIF project.

City plans call for new roads; new water and sewage pipes; stormwater retention, among other upgrades, to pave the way for a Union Pier renovation that could cost taxpayers an estimated $400 million.

City staff and consultants are also estimating another $2 billion in private investment that would bring hotels, retail and restaurants to the site.

But no comprehensive plan has been released, complicating the decision that must be made by the school district and county.

“If the government doesn’t provide the deferred public infrastructure that is needed to do this, it will remain a port terminal and remain at zero tax revenue to the county, city and school district,” Cogswell said at the last meeting. month. In the recent op-edhe insisted that TIF projects are not a subsidy to the developer.