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ABBOTSFORD AREA MUNICIPALITIES WANT PAYOUT
Thursday, April 20th, 2006 -- 11:09 am
Posted by Riley Hebert-News Director
A several-year controversy appears to be coming to a head, as eight municipalities claim they deserve to be repaid $4-million because the City of Abbotsford failed to close two tax incremental finances (TIF) districts on time.
A “notice of claim” against the eight current Abbotsford alderman, mayor and the clerk/treasurer was served Tuesday night. It seeks $50,000 from each, for each of the eight municipalities.
The plaintiffs in the case are the village of Curtiss, the Clark County towns of Colby, Mayville and Hoard and the Marathon County towns of Hull, Johnson, Frankfort and Holton.
In a TIF, the property's owner pays taxes only on the assessed value of the property before development. The taxes on the improved land are used only to pay the cost of development within that district and are not distributed to the city, school districts and county for general use.
In this case, the municipalities claim Abbotsford should have closed the two TIF districts in 1990, but instead kept them open until 1999 forcing surrounding municipalities to pay more taxes.
Neillsville attorney Tom Harnisch is representing the municipalities; he says Abbotsford officials are well aware of what happened. Abbotsford Mayor Dale Rachu claims the city closed the TIFs as soon as they realized the mistake.
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