tax increment financing

St. Joseph County Council member Amy Drake says the county gave Amazon too many incentives and tax breaks for its data center near New Carlisle, so she's glad Microsoft won't seek a property tax abatement when it starts building a data center near Granger this year.

Creating a new housing tax incremental financing area would capture new property tax growth in the Lincoln Park and Kennedy Park neighborhoods. Instead of going into the city's General Fund, the new tax revenue would be spent on infrastructure in those two neighborhoods.

State lawmakers have repeatedly proposed legislation that would restrict local governments' ability to use Tax Increment Finance (TIF) districts to…