A not-particularly-trumpeted but governmentally significant thing happened July 1: The tax increment financing district for Coral Ridge Mall expired. The mall opened 20 years ago at the end of this month. The city of Coralville’s website explains:
At that time, taxes on the base property value as well as increased property value will be available to all taxing bodies in Johnson County. The release of value and TIF revenues in the Mall TIF District are estimated to be $364.8 million in taxable value and $10.7 million annually in revenues to local governments.
In either a geographical quirk or sign of strategic planning, those taxing bodies include not one but two school districts: Iowa City and Clear Creek Amana. In the below parcel map, from the Johnson County Assessor’s Office, the vertical black line that runs the length of the property divides the districts.
The line used to be 25th Avenue (you can see a smidge of it in white at bottom center) but now runs right through the (Ann Taylor) Loft store. The now-subdivided former Sears and Dillard’s are on the CCA side; the movie theater, J.C. Penney, Target, Best Buy, and soon-to-close Younkers are on the Iowa City side.
CCA and Iowa City, as two of the handful of districts in Iowa on a long-term enrollment winning streak, need the un-TIF’ed money either the most or least among districts in the state.