Tampa core may lose slice of county taxes
TAMPA — Mayor Bob Buckhorn pushes downtown redevelopment as a top priority for his administration, evangelizing about its capacity to lift the wider region economically and directing resources there to keep it moving.
Now his partner in the campaign, Hillsborough County, is saying enough.
For 30 years, the city and county have been plowing any increases in the tax revenues they collect on downtown properties back into downtown — specifically, to two districts known as community redevelopment areas.
By all accounts, this tax-increment financing or TIF has succeeded in keeping big money downtown — nearly two-thirds of the $19 million total to be collected this year alone in all eight of the city’s redevelopment districts.
Buckhorn said renewing the downtown TIF would continue to pay dividends, in part by keeping the cost of borrowing money low.