Economic Development and Tax Incentives

How do you feel about tax incentives? It is something that Council will have to address over the course of the summer. One of our tentative objectives, it hasn't been approved, is growth. How do we grow our retail base downtown? How do we grow our commercial area along the highway? How do we grow our industrial area? How do we grow our housing?

Caleb Village from Motherwell Resevoir May 29, 2013

One of the tools the Town has is tax incentives. For an example: a tax incentive can be tiered to reflect the type of investment a developer is going to make. Should a developer get the same tax incentive as someone who has contributed more or less? Consider that Caleb Village and Wal Mart both built their own infrastructure, such as road, sanitation, and water and didn't pay property tax for 5 years. Should someone who builds a store or builds a house downtown, using existing road, sanitation, and water be property tax free for 5 years? A fair system would recognize the difference and assess appropriately.