Making Urban Renewal Harder

Idaho lawmakers passed a bill that makes it harder to create new urban renewal areas and trims their bonding authority.

HB 95 requires a local government to hold a referendum for its voters to approve any new urban renewal areas; existing areas are exempt from the requirement.

When cities or counties form an urban renewal area, they are allowed to capture the growth in assessed property values within that area to finance infrastructure, often through the issuance of bonds supported by the tax increment.

The bill reduces the maximum maturity for urban renewal bonds to 20 years and makes it more difficult to annex agricultural land into an urban renewal district.

The measure cleared the state Senate unanimously Tuesday and moved to the desk of Gov. Butch Otter.

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