Item 3 - PH on Downtown UR Plan - Laserfiche WebLink

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the special levy for the library project in the Downtown DistriCt'; (2) Eugene Urban Renewal Downtown, which is the division of tax funding for the Downtown District; and (3) Eugene Urban Renewal Riverfront, which is the division of tax funding for the Riverfront District. 5. What is the Downtown Urban Renewal District tax for an average home? Would the tax bill be lower if the district were eliminated? According to the Tax Assessor, the average home in Eugene in FY04 had an assessed value of $154,200. That average home would pay two urban renewal taxes for the Downtown District: $31 for the special levy for the library, and $38 for the Downtown District "division of tax" levy. This $69 for the Downtown Urban Renewal District taxes represents about 2.4% of the total tax bill for an average taxpayer. If the Downtown Urban Renewal District were eliminated, properties in Eugene would pay slightly less in taxes. The tax bill would go down by the amount of the special levy for the downtown district. That levy is currently being used to repay debt issued for the library. It would also go down slightly for lowered local option levy and bonded debt tax rates. The remaining property tax dollars would be redirected to the overlapping taxing districts. 6. How much property tax funding does the Downtown Urban Renewal District receive? In FY04, the Downtown District is expected to receive $3.6'million in property taxes, of which $1.9 million is from the "division of tax" portion and $1.7 million is from the special levy for the library. 7. How does the Downtown Urban Renewa1 District affect the other taxing jurisdictions, such as the schools, the County and the City?. The overlapping jurisdictions are kept whole when a district is created through the division of taxes calculation explained above. The overlapping districts retain the taxes on the value of property within the district at its creation. Urban renewal generally does not affect an individual school 'system's operating budget because schools are funded by the state on a per-pupil basis. On a state-wide, basis, if there are less property tax revenues going to schools because of urban renewal districts, then the state,has to provide more general fund dollars to make up the per-pupil funding requirement for all the Schools. If a district has a local option levy, however, that levy revenue will be reduced as a result of urban renewal incremental value. For other taxing jurisdictions, the share of property taxes f~r0m the "excess value" or "incremental value" is not collected by the overlapping jurisdictions during the.period of an active district. Urban renewal nominally affects voter-approved local option levies and bonds because the affected district has less property value to levy taxes against, resulting in slightly high'er tax rates. The incentive for the overlapping districts to support urban renewal is higher property tax revenues in the long run. Ultimately when the district is ended, the overlapping taxing districts are able to tax the entire value within the district. Under the theory of urban renewal, this value is higher than it would have been if there had been no district in effect.