Tax increment financing (TIF) is one of the most popular funding mechanisms for downtown and other local economic development projects across municipalities in the United States. While California pioneered TIF to leverage federal funds for urban renewal projects during the early 1950s, the State's recent dissolution of redevelopment agencies has wiped out TIF from the toolkit of local public finance. The specter of legal challenges to TIF elsewhere in the country has unsettled the community of economic development practitioners. The Michigan Legislature is currently in the process of developing a series of reform proposals that potentially imply significant statutory changes in structure of TIF, possibly limiting the scope and application of this economic development option in Michigan. The opportunity costs of such modifications to TIF practice are not easily quantifiable for public policy makers or local economic development specialists because statewide data that could help analysts evaluate the extent and effectiveness of these tax capture tools simply does not exist. This paper seeks to contribute to the current policy discussion on TIF reform by proposing the blueprint for a comprehensive, state-level database on the scale, scope and structure of TIF activities in Michigan (Michigan Repository for TIF "MiRTIF"). Categorizing, classifying and standardizing the reporting on all TIF activities in the state, the MiRTIF is intended to provide a consolidated view for making meaningful fiscal comparisons at different levels.

Local and state governments use various tools to encourage development in economically challenged areas. Tax-increment financing (TIF) has been a leading tool used for this purpose. TIF allows cities and towns to borrow against an area’s future tax revenues in order to invest in immediate projects or encourage present development. When used properly and sparingly, TIF can promote enduring growth and stronger communities. When used improperly, however, TIF can waste taxpayer resources or channel money to politically favored special interests. To protect the public interest, governments should impose strong safeguards that ensure that TIF projects are implemented through a transparent, accountable process with clear and compelling goals.

By 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities. To thrive, they will need efficient and sustainable forms of transport, but to achieve this, the financial incentives guiding urban transport operation must change – and change rapidly. Urban transport plays a critical role in determining the social, environmental and economic shape of cities. Improving Urban Access: New Approaches to Funding Transport Investment provide innovative ideas on how we might reorganize transport finance to ensure that it is suited to serving the social, environmental and economic principles that must guide future urban living. Continuing the work begun by its predecessor, Urban Access for the 21st Century, the authors assess the complexity of implementing new finance approaches and suggest ways to make positive and radical changes. Although the range of revenue raising options remain limited to users, indirect beneficiaries, and the general public, these can be recast to transform the way transport is paid for and therefore how its services are delivered. New finance models only succeed when they are intrinsically linked to the economic, social, cultural and political forces that create urban life. Together these volumes provide a starting point for the deeper research and policy design needed to successfully create urban transport finance systems that can address the challenges that 21st century cities present.

Budgeting for Local Governments and Communities is designed as the primary textbook for a quarter or semester-long course in public budgeting and finance in an MPA programme. Many currently available texts for this course suffer from a combination of defects that include a focus on federal and state budgeting, a lack of a theoretical governance framework, an omission of important topics, and typically a lack of exercises and datasets for student use. Budgeting for Local Governments and Communities solves all of these problems. The book is exceptionally comprehensive and well written, and represents the efforts of veteran authors with both teaching and real-world experience. Key Features: Special Focus on Local Government Budgeting: focuses exclusively on budgeting at the local levels of American government, which are responsible for spending 40 percent of the taxes collected from citizens. Integration of Theory and Practice: teaching cases and chapters capture the "lessons learned" by professional practitioners who have extensive experience in making local public budgeting work on the ground. Polity Approach to Local Budgeting: presents an introduction to local budgeting as the central political activity that integrates the resources of the community into a unified whole. Budgeting is presented as governance work, rather than as a unique set of skills possessed by analysts and financial specialists. Legal, Historical, Economic and Moral Foundations of Local Government Budgeting: provides readers with an understanding of how the structures and processes of local budgeting systems are firmly tethered to the underlying core values, legal principles and historical development of the larger American federal, state and local political systems. Electronic Datasets and Budgeting Exercises: the text includes access to extensive electronic datasets and practice exercises that provide abundant opportunities for students to "learn through doing." Extensive Glossary and Bibliography: covers terms on the history and practice of local public budgeting.

Economist David Merriman of the University of Illinois at Chicago reviews more than 30 individual studies in the most comprehensive assessment of tax increment financing (TIF) with practical recommendations for policy makers and practitioners. The report finds that while TIF has the potential to draw investment into neglected places, it has not accomplished the goal of promoting economic development in most cases. First implemented in the 1950s, TIF funds economic development within a defined district by earmarking increases in future property tax revenues that result from increases in real estate values in the district. The tax revenue can be used for public infrastructure or to compensate private developers for their investments, but TIF is prone to several pitfalls: it often captures some revenues that would have been generated through normal appreciation in property values, it can be exploited by cities to obtain revenues that would otherwise go to overlying government entities such as school districts, and it can make cities' financial decisions less transparent by separating them from the normal budget process. The report recommends several ways that state and local policy makers can reform TIF practices going forward.

The fully revised new edition of this textbook presents a well-balanced set of economic development financing tools and techniques focused on our current times of economic austerity. While traditional public sector techniques are evaluated and refocused, this volume emphasizes the role of the private sector and the increasing need to bring together different techniques and sources to create a workable financial development package. The chapters address critical assessments of various methods as well as practical advice on how to implement these techniques. New chapters on entrepreneurship, the changing nature of the community banking system, and the increasing need for partnerships provides critical insights into the ever-evolving practice of economic development finance.

Great natural disasters are rare, but their aftermath can change the fortunes of a city or region forever. This book identifies lessons from different parts of the world to help communities and government leaders better organize for recovery after future disasters. The authors consider the processes and outcomes of community recovery and reconstruction following major disasters in six countries: China, New Zealand, India, Indonesia, Japan, and the United States. If done well, reconstruction can help break the cycle of disaster-related impacts and losses, and improve the resilience of a city or.

In this volume the authors tell the real stories of the planners, politicians, and everyday people who shaped contemporary Chicago, starting in 1958, early in the Richard J. Daley era. Over the ensuing decades, planning did much to develop the Loop, protect Chicago’s famous lakefront, and encourage industrial growth and neighborhood development in the face of national trends that savaged other cities. But planning also failed some of Chicago’s communities and did too little for others. The Second City is no longer defined by its past and its myths but by the nature of its emerging postindustrial future. This volume looks beyond Burnham’s giant shadow to see the sprawl and scramble of a city always on the make. This isn’t the way other history books tell the story. But it’s the Chicago way.

Infrastructure is vital to a resilient society and infrastructure investment is therefore critical to the vibrant functioning of societies. Infrastructure assets span economic and social spheres, but despite the prime importance of infrastructure investment, national governments simply cannot fund all of society's infrastructure requirements. This book, Infrastructure Procurement and Funding explores the key models of procuring and financing major projects and infrastructure works whilst critically acknowledging the inherent challenges in successfully securing the necessary funding. The book provides the reader with a detailed review of contemporary methods of financing and procuring infrastructure projects, commencing with an examination of the role of infrastructure in society in creating resilient societies. It reviews public sector funding mechanisms for infrastructure investment and then introduces, before presenting emerging trends in private sector investment in infrastructure. Fundamentally this book identifies robust, innovative, and contemporary solutions to the procurement, financing and investment in major infrastructure projects, globally, nationally and regionally. The book is ideal reading for international courses in construction procurement, construction project management, infrastructure asset management, real estate investment and finance, but will also be useful for those construction business leaders in public and private sectors who are responsible for making major project and infrastructure financial and investment decisions.