Memo Tax Increment Workshop
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. CITY OF HOPKINS
MEMORANDUM
DATE: February 2, 1994
TO: Honorable Mayor and city Council
FROM:~Jim Kerrigan, Director Planning & Economic Development
SUBJECT: TAX INCREMENT WORKSHOP
Due to the variety of questions, concerns, controversy, etc. that have
recently surfaced with the City's use of tax increment staff feels
that it may be beneficial for the Council to have a workshop on this
Economic Development tool. The purpose of this would be to give the
Council a good working knowledge of TIF. It is thought a local
financing consultant the City uses on a regular basis would be brought
in to act as the facilitator. It is anticipated that approximately 3
to 4 hours would need to be dedicated to this topic.
. At the present time it would appear that two alternatives are
available for a session of this type.
0 Dedicate all or a portion of a future workshop session or a
block of time prior to a Council meeting.
0 Have a joint workshop with the City of Minnetonka. In
talking with their staff they are anticipating holding a
similar session with their Council in the near future and
are agreeable to having the Hopkins Council be a part of
this meeting. They are using the same consultant Hopkins
staff would utilize for the purpose.
The benefit of a shared session with Minnetonka is that the consultant
cost can be shared. Minnetonka staff has stated that based on
discussions with their council and the consultant they would like to
hold the session on Monday, March 7 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at
Minnetonka City Hall.
If there was an agreement to hold a joint workshop the first two hours
would be dedicated to a general discussion of tax increment. For the
second two hour block the two respective cities would break into
different areas with one of the two consultants present to discuss
issues and ask questions specific to their community.
. Staff will be discussing this issue in more detail at the February 8
workshop to try to secure some direction on how the Council wishes to
proceed.
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