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Legislators must set aside politics and pass TIF bill S. AZ delegation, Senate chief seek Rio Nuevo accord

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Nothing is simple. Take, for example, the bill in the Arizona Legislature that's supposed to help rebuild Downtown Tucson.

Let's start with its subject, which is called tax increment financing, or TIF. Doesn't tell us much, does it?

In 1999 the Legislature passed some bills dealing with this subject. They allowed a city or county to get back some of the sales taxes collected in a specific area for use in improving the area. They called it tax increment financing.

The bills didn't increase anybody's taxes. They just moved money around, in effect allowing cities and counties to use some of the sales taxes collected in their communities to improve those communities.

After the Tucson TIF bill was passed, the city drew the boundaries for the area where the sales taxes would be generated. The lines were strange, but voters approved them.

The boundary looks like a thermometer. Downtown is the circle at the bottom. The top of the thermometer is a straight line going East on Broadway. The line is just wide enough to take in El Con and Park Place malls. The idea was to collect sales taxes generated by the malls and use the funds to build an arts and entertainment district Downtown.

More broadly, the idea was to take sales taxes that were collected locally and invest them in local projects. Originally, Tucson had 10 years to reap the benefits of this arrangement.

Last year, the city went back to the Legislature and asked that the life-span of the TIF be extended from 10 years to 40. The city did not ask that the boundary for the TIF district be redrawn. It said give us more time, because all these projects are more expensive and more complex than we originally thought.

But nothing is that simple, right?

The city needed permission from the Legislature, but the bill seeking an extension has become bogged down in political maneuvering.

Later this week it is expected to get to the floor of the Senate, but that's up to Senate President Ken Bennett, who is juggling the views of people with differing opinions — among them his policy adviser, Mark Swenson, who thinks the measure is unconstitutional. Lawyers for the House and Senate think it's legal.

We urge Bennett to move the bill to a vote without watering it down to the point of uselessness.

The Tucson Chamber of Commerce supports the bill, and some 30 to 40 business representatives went to the capital last Wednesday to lobby for it. The bill has been approved in the House, but will go back for a second vote if amendments are added in the Senate.

Bennett must weigh Tucson's broad business and political support against Swenson's concerns and those of former City Council member Kathleen Dunbar, a Republican and former legislator who testified earlier before the Senate's Commerce and Economic Development Committee.

Dunbar, who lost her City Council seat in November's election, says the TIF bill is a violation of the spirit of the original bill, which was passed while she was in the Legislature. She said the TIF district boundaries should only be Downtown.

"I see problems if the bill includes El Con and Park mall," she said.

However, voters approved including those shopping malls several years ago, and no one else seems inclined to argue over them today. Besides, the taxes derived from those locations will be paid whether the TIF extension is approved or not; this bill simply directs that a portion of those taxes remain in Tucson.

When we contacted Dunbar, she rightly pointed out that she is a private citizen, no longer an elected official. With that in mind, we hope Bennett will weigh her views against those of us who see passage of the bill as essential to Tucson's economic future.