In the span of a week, Americans witnessed two important days – Tax Day on April 15th, and Earth Day on April 22nd. While we saw many celebrations on Earth Day, on the infamous day that tax forms are due, moods were likely less cheerful as individuals throughout the country struggled to understand a … Read more

This post is part of a series (Part I here and Part II here) on the Town of Hillsborough’s implementation of special assessment project financing. Part II mentioned the lengthy process to coordinate the thoughtful deliberation of the town’s policy. So far the series has differentiated the special as … Read more

Imagine a county wondering what to do with its old courthouse that is sitting vacant in the middle of downtown.  Perhaps the county wants to use part of the building as the commissioners’ meeting room, but the rest of the courthouse would sit unused, literally gathering dust, because the county does … Read more

In his Inferno, Dante places usurers in the seventh circle of Hell along with profligates, blasphemers, and those violent towards people and property.  These damned souls dwell in the innermost ring of the seventh circle, where they must sit in a flaming desert surrounded by falling tongues of fire. … Read more

In our series on the Town of Hillsborough’s use of special assessments for project development financing we left by contrasting the tool with tax increment financing in Part I of this series. Part II reviews some of the unique aspects of the implementation process. The School of Government’s Kara Mi … Read more

Recently, developers and investors in historic rehabilitation projects—and the communities in which they work—let out a big sigh of relief. After months of uncertainty, the Internal Revenue Service issued guidance on January 9, 2014 that cleared up the terms by which developers can allocate to their … Read more

In the fall of 2013, a blog post on special assessments for financing infrastructure included a short description of the Town of Hillsborough’s use of this finance strategy. Hillsborough was the first local government in North Carolina to borrow money and pledge special assessments as security for a … Read more

Twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping, ten lords a leaping, nine ladies dancing… If you are like me at this time of year, busy with last-minute gift shopping, you may have the sinking feeling that every year it costs more and more to buy presents for our loved ones.  To put it another way … Read more

The City of Memphis, Tennessee was an early adopter and frequent user of HOPE VI funds to demolish traditional public housing and redevelop mixed-income sites. Over the past 15 years, the Memphis Housing Authority (MHA) has received more than $155 million Federal dollars to demolish five public hous … Read more

News outlets regularly report about the latest company that was lured to North Carolina through the payment of a cash economic development incentive by a local government and the state. Local government cash incentives often take the form of an annual cash payment to a company that is contingent on … Read more