Predicting TIF Distress: A Statistical Analysis of Tax Incremental Finance Districts in Wisconsin

John Kovari

Public Budgeting & Finance, 2020, vol. 40, issue 1, 70-90

Abstract: Tax incremental financing (TIF) is the most prevalent, complex, and controversial economic development tool used by local governments today. TIF proponents argue that TIF increases stagnant property values, but critics suggest that TIF is an unnecessary subsidy and distorts real estate markets. Although case studies offer evidence supporting both sides, the argument begs an important question: because some TIF districts are successful and others unsuccessful, is there a way to predict TIF distress and help prevent TIF failure? Practitioners and academics highlight the importance of pre‐implementation planning and strict monitoring of TIF performance. However, even with the most strident planning and monitoring, TIF districts still often fail. Utilizing a dataset of all 1,080 active TIF districts in Wisconsin, this paper adopts techniques popular in assessing local government fiscal health by focusing on indicators such as budgetary solvency and macroeconomic conditions in predicting TIF distress.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/pbaf.12248

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:pbudge:v:40:y:2020:i:1:p:70-90

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0275-1100

Access Statistics for this article

Public Budgeting & Finance is currently edited by Philip Joyce and William Simonsen

More articles in Public Budgeting & Finance from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().