The Cape Coral City Council, sitting as South Cape Community Redevelopment Agency commissioners, approved a $45.7 million tax rebate for the Bimini East project on Wednesday.
Assistant City Manager Mark Mason took the board through a presentation to shed some light on Tax-Increment Financing, and the proposed agreement with Crowne Development.
Mason said when a city creates a redevelopment agency, which was done in the South Cape 1986 and expanded in 2003 and 2009, the taxable value of the property is frozen as the baseline.
Property taxes that come due as the properties are developed and so assessed to reflect the increased valuation fund the CRA and also can go back into a particular property as a rebate.
The funding is unique to CRAs.
“That is the year that starts the tax increment calculation for every year thereafter,” Mason said, adding that they receive a document from the property appraiser office regarding that value for the CRA. “A portion of those taxes generated, increases the value associated with the CRA, is deposited into the trust fund – taxes from the county and city.”