§ 1897 - Tax increment financing
§ 1897. Tax increment financing
(a) The legislative body may pledge and appropriate in equal proportion any part or all of the state and municipal tax increments received from properties contained within the tax increment financing district for the financing for improvements and for related costs in the same proportion by which the infrastructure or related costs directly serve the district at the time of approval of the project financing by the council, and in the case of infrastructure essential to the development of the district that does not reasonably lend itself to a proportionality formula, the council shall apply a rough proportionality and rational nexus test; provided, that if any tax increment utilization is approved pursuant to 32 V.S.A. § 5404a(f), no more than 75 percent of the state property tax increment and no less than an equal percent of the municipal tax increment may be used to service this debt. Bonds shall only be issued if the legal voters of the municipality, by a majority vote of all voters present and voting on the question at a special or annual municipal meeting duly warned for the purpose, give authority to the legislative body to pledge the credit of the municipality for these purposes. Notwithstanding any provision of any municipal charter, the legal voters of a municipality, by a single vote, shall authorize the legislative body to pledge the credit of the municipality up to a specified maximum dollar amount for all debt obligations to be financed with state property tax increment pursuant to approval by the Vermont economic progress council and subject to the provisions of this section and 32 V.S.A. § 5404a.
(b) A municipality's pledge of credit for financing improvements under this subchapter and 32 V.S.A. § 5404a shall include notice that if the tax increment received by the municipality from any property tax source is insufficient to pay the principal and interest on the debt in any year, for whatever reason, including a decrease in property value or repeal of a state property tax source, unless determined otherwise at the time of such repeal, the municipality shall remain liable for full payment of the principal and interest for the term of indebtedness. (Added 1985, No. 87; amended 2005, No. 184 (Adj. Sess.), § 2e; 2007, No. 190 (Adj. Sess.), § 58, eff. June 6, 2008.)