My opponent seems to believe that our Tax Increment Districts have not been used properly and Tax Increment District 3 has been open too long. Below is a comparison of Sheboygan Falls Tax Increment Districts with a number of other communities. All of these numbers are taken directly from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue website from their most recent report.

In Sheboygan County I selected Sheboygan, Oostburg and Plymouth, (our most natural competitor). I selected all the schools that were in our athletic conference when I was in High school: Chilton, Kewaskum, Kiel, New Holstein, Plymouth, and Two Rivers. I included a few other communities in the general area that are around our assessed valuation, Whitewater where I went to college, and Hillsboro because our Building Inspector Ken Sonntag’s son Adam is the administrator there.

Take a look at the below table and you will find that all of these communities either have a greater value in Tax Increment Districts, or a greater percent of assessed value in Tax Increment Districts, and most are well ahead of us in both. You will see that our District 3 was started in 1994, and 12 of the other districts below were started in 1994 or earlier.

Since Shad Tenpas was hired as City Administrator, Sheboygan Falls has picked up our creation of new Tax Increment Districts to spur economic development. District 4 was started around the Plankview Green area a year and a half ago, bringing Kwik Trip. District 5 will be finalized by the end of March, which is why Metallic Tube Applications is building in Vision Business Park now, and Dura-Trel will break ground on a 67,200 sq foot building in a few months. The law allows a community to go up to 12% of assessed valuation before new districts can not be started. We will probably reach 6% of our assessed valuation in TID over the next five years, and then TID 3 will close and we will drop back down to 3% of valuation in TID.

One final point before you review the below table. When I started as Mayor TID 3’s value was $11,241,700 producing annual increment income of $242,722 and today TID #3 has grown to a value of $22,095,900 producing annual increment income of $538,638. So, why didn’t we put the roads and infrastructure in 10 years ago? Simple, the income did not support the expense until the value and increment doubled during my time as Mayor.

See my other TID posts TID Explained

Vote Meyer for Mayor on April 3rd.