Springfield City Council members who said in September they were unaware of a previous mayor’s promise to send $100,000 a year to School District 186 from funds collected for two of the city’s tax-increment financing districts have no reason to plead ignorance, former mayor Jim Langfelder told Illinois Times.
Langfelder, who lost his bid for a third term as mayor in 2023 to current Mayor Misty Buscher, said council members “can say whatever they want.” But he shared with IT an email exchange between him and 10 alderpersons in 2021 – seven of whom continue to serve on the council – that Langfelder said proves he informed the council about the funding agreement he made at that time with District 186 Superintendent Jennifer Gill.
Ward 10 Ald. Ralph Hanauer called Langfelder’s explanation “a bunch of garbage.”
Hanauer, who was on the council at the time, said he didn’t remember the Oct. 23, 2021, email from Langfelder. Hanauer didn’t deny receiving it, saying, “We got a lot of emails.”
Hanauer said his criticism of the former mayor was valid because Langfelder never followed up to codify his promise to District 186 by seeking City Council approval.
“It happened a lot,” Hanauer said, referring to what he considered a lack of clear communication between the council and Langfelder. “He tries to cover his tracks.”
Ward 9 Ald. Jim Donelan, who also was on the council at the time, said he didn’t remember the council voting on or discussing compensation to the school district.
Langfelder told IT that he didn’t propose an ordinance codifying the promise to pay the school district because it wasn’t timely. Revenues generated by the two TIF districts to pay District 186 weren’t collected until late 2023, he said.
By that time, Langfelder said, he was out of office. He said council members and employees in the city’s budget office who remained after Buscher took office were well aware of the promise to pay the school district.
Subtle digs at Langfelder’s communication style came from a few council members during a Sept. 9 committee-of-the-whole meeting and the Sept. 16 regular meeting of the council.
The council ended up voting 6-0 at Sept. 16 meeting to begin forwarding a portion of property taxes collected by the Enos Park and Springfield Housing Authority/Madison Park Place TIFs to the District 186.
To avoid a conflict of interest, Ward 5 Ald. Lakeisha Purchase, who owns property in the Enos Park neighborhood, didn’t vote on the measure. Alderpersons Erin Conley of Ward 8, Shawn Gregory of Ward 2 and Larry Rockford of Ward 4 were absent.
The annual total to be forwarded to District 186 will be $100,000, or $50,000 from each of the TIFs, through 2034 with the total amount not to exceed $1.2 million, as called for in a May 21, 2020, email exchange between Gill and Langfelder. The same day, Gill provided a letter of support to renew the TIF, addressed to the mayor and City Council members, although it’s unclear if that document was shared with the council at that time.
An email that same day from Gill to Langfelder indicated that the amounts promised by Langfelder each year equaled 15% of what District 186 normally would receive in property tax revenue from the area covered by the Enos Park TIF area and 29% of what the school district normally would get from the Madison Park TIF area.
Unless there is an agreement to forward some money back to taxing districts, the city receives all of the property tax revenue generated by a TIF district beyond the base level collected when the TIF is first established. The incremental increase is allocated by the council to help pay for infrastructure work and other state-approved uses in areas deemed by the council to be blighted.
After an initial 23-year lifespan, TIFs can be extended in 12-year increments with votes by the Illinois General Assembly on bills that receive the governor’s signature.
Springfield has had TIF districts since the early 1980s. Agreements by municipalities to pay back at least some of the proceeds from TIF districts to cash-strapped taxing bodies have become commonplace in Illinois. Those taxing bodies have leverage, if they choose to exert it, to make agreements with municipalities to be reimbursed for part of the future property tax revenue they stand to lose.
That’s because state lawmakers have made it a practice to require that all affected taxing bodies submit letters of support for extending the life of a TIF before the Illinois House or Senate takes a vote.
The village of Jerome is currently negotiating with District 186, the largest recipient of revenue from local property taxes, on whether to share some of the proceeds from the village’s proposed new TIF district, even though the district’s support isn’t required for the initial lifespan of a TIF district.
When the life of Springfield’s Central Area/Downtown TIF district, formed in 1981, was extended another 12 years in the mid-2000s, the City Council agreed to pay District 186 $700,000 each year. When the Downtown TIF’s life was extended a second time in 2017, the council agreed to boost the annual payment to District 186 to $1.4 million a year through 2029.
The council voted in 2021 to make one-time payments to Springfield Park District of $251,025 from the Madison Park TIF and $404,014 from the Enos Park TIF for improvements to park facilities in exchange for the park district’s support to extend the life of those TIFs.
Gregory Moredock, the city’s chief legal counsel, who began work after Buscher was elected, told the council in September that he first learned of Langfelder’s promise to the district when contacted by the district in search of the money.
Buscher, who was city treasurer before being elected mayor, said the $100,000 funding promise “was an expense we weren’t expecting.”
Amy Rasing, director of the city’s Office of Planning and Economic Development, said the amount that will be forwarded back to the school district won’t hinder or interfere with any projects or programs scheduled to receive TIF funding.
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer with Illinois Times. He can be reached at dolsen@illinoistimes.com, 217-679-7810 or www.x.DeanOlsenIT.