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Monday, October 25, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Monica Moran, 614-378-2879
Monica.Moran@franklincountyohio.gov
New, More Comprehensive 2021 Tax Incentive Review Council Report Released
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Franklin County Auditor Michael Stinziano released a new, more comprehensive 2021 Tax Incentive Review Council (TIRC) Report on Monday detailing the use of tax incentives by municipalities throughout the county.
The report is accompanied by the Tax Incentive Hub, an online tool that launched earlier this year with detailed information on every incentive in use throughout Franklin County.
The revamped report, which is available on the Auditor’s office website, includes analysis from a report by economists on the TIRC data as well as detailed statistics and maps showing the impact of incentives in every municipality that uses them.
Tax incentives remain widely used both in Franklin County and across the country to encourage economic development and improve our communities. In 2021, 25 municipalities throughout Franklin County had active tax incentives that required review. The review analyzed 294 abated projects and 242 TIF projects.
“Franklin County residents deserve a transparent accounting of every incentive. They should know whether these incentives are providing the benefits promised to our communities and whether they are working as intended,” Stinziano said.
Among the takeaways of the TIRC report:
- 4,152 parcels (out of 439,858 total parcels) in Franklin County received a tax abatement. These abatements equaled more than $122 million in foregone tax. These abatements also created or retained almost 41,000 jobs and created more than $1.8 billion in payroll and more than $2 billion in real estate investment.
- The economists’ report found “(statistically significant) positive effects for parcel owners receiving a CRA abatement, slightly smaller (positive and significant) spillover effects for parcels within 100-meters of abated parcels, and smaller and smaller and significant effects for a parcel simply being within a CRA.”
- Regarding how abatements affect school funding, the economists’ report found that “our results suggest that increases in abated taxes within school districts reduce school district instructional expenditure by a small amount with statistical significance.” The economists pointed out that on a per-student basis, abatements do have a small negative impact on funding spent by schools.
- The economists’ analysis did not find that TIFs caused an area to have more businesses created.
The TIRC process monitors the status of each incentive and makes a recommendation to the local municipality as to the efficacy of the incentive.
TIRCs are reviews, required by state law, that annually evaluate every tax incentive in the county to see if they are performing as well as agreements stipulated they would. Every municipality that uses incentives is required to have a TIRC. The councils are chaired by Auditor Stinziano and include representatives from impacted cities/villages, townships, school districts, as well as citizens.
The 2021 TIRC Report and Tax Incentive Hub can be accessed through the Auditor’s website here: https://franklincountyauditor.com/taxincentives.
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