On November 18, 2011, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed Assembly Bill 179 into law, which allows two or more cities to jointly establish a TIF district. Prior to the adoption of this law, municipalities were only able to establish TIF districts within their own jurisdictions.
The following criteria must be met to establish a multi-jurisdictional TIF district:
- All of the parcels within the proposed TIF district are contiguous;
- The proposed TIF district includes parcels in all of the cities that are parties to the TIF agreement; and
- At least one parcel in each participating city is adjacent to at least one parcel in another participating city.
To create a multi-jurisdictional TIF district, the following approvals are required:
- The governing body of each participating city must approve the resolution establishing the multi-jurisdictional TIF district;
- Each joint review board must approve the multi-jurisdictional TIF district establishment resolution by a majority vote; and
- Any public members of participating cities on the joint review board must approve the establishment resolution.
By amending the TIF law in this way, Wisconsin intends to provide municipalities with a regional economic development tool.