Explanation
BACKGROUND: The City established the Stelzer-Stygler Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) in 1986 to stimulate private investment and job creation. In 1994, changes in the CRA law placed additional obligations on municipalities to compensate school districts for lost revenues arising from tax abatements. On May 21, 2002 the City entered into a Compensation Agreement with the Gahanna-Jefferson School District to compensate the District for revenues from real property taxes forgone due to abatements on parcels in the Stelzer-Stygler CRA. Payment for the immediately preceding tax year - 2001 - was made at that time. However, the Agreement covered properties that had been exempted for tax years prior to 2001, and, in fact, as early as tax year 1997.
Rather than requiring the City of Columbus to make a large payment in 2002 for all of those prior tax years, the parties agreed that compensation for those prior years would be deferred until the end of the exemption period. The abatements for parcels 520-250981 and 520-250982 (two parcels in the Gahanna-Jefferson School District area of the Stelzer-Stygler CRA with building improvements and which benefited from CRA tax abatements) commenced with tax year 1997 and terminated in tax year 2006; compensation was paid by the City commencing for tax year 2001, but compensation for four tax years - 1997 through 2000 - was deferred and was to be payable 2008 though 2011 (following tax years 2007 through 2010).
Pursuant to Ordinance 0189-2008, passed on February 11, 2008, which authorized payment of $416,669.24 to the Gahanna-Jefferson School District, this legislation authorizes the additional payment of $191,054.05 to the Gahanna-Jefferson School District to complete the compensation payable in 2008 and deferred from 1997 for parcels 520-250981 and 520-250982. This sum is calculated using the definitions in the Compensation Agreement. The total private investment in the new buildings constructed on the t...
Click here for full text