LINCOLN- Leaders in Nebraska believe that an essential tool for economic development could be jeopardized during the special legislative session's property tax reform. The tax-increment financing program, known as TIF, was introduced in the 1980s to encourage growth in struggling areas. The program allowed a developer to gain city approval to use increased property taxes generated by improving a blighted property to help fund a redevelopment program.

Lawmakers have flooded the legislature with different approaches to lowering property taxes and the impact it would have on TIF. It is widely understood that the call for cutting the levy would reduce the revenue generated and available to pay back a TIF loan. “A giant artificial drop in the levy would … make trouble for current TIF projects and make new TIF projects unworkable,” said Steve Curtiss, finance director for the City of Omaha.

Critics have questioned whether the program is overused and if it's incentivizing greedy developers. After a TIF development is finished, property taxes on the site go to the developer rather than the usual recipients: school districts and local governments. Multiple plans in the legislature are still in play, so a surefire solution has yet to be found.

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