Kent County Administrator Daryl Delabbio said he thought the Squire’s article last week on DDAs did not make clear that DDAs can last forever if not allowed to expire. He offered this comment for clarification for our readers.
In effect, DDAs can last “forever” if the city, township, or village extends them by amending their development and financing plans and time frame while they currently exist. So, if Rockford extends the existing DDA for another 10, 15, 20, 25 years, it can at any time continually amend its plan and extend the DDA’s life. If the City wants to amend the plan and extend the time in 2009, the DDA would exist for however long the plan called for (up to 30 years or until 2039). Then in 2015, the City wants to amend the plan again and extend the time, it can do so (for up to 30 years or until 2045). The County could not “opt out” of having it’s taxes captured by the DDA.
If, however, the Rockford DDA ended based on its current development and financing plan and the City took no action to amend or extend it, then the DDA would end. At that point, if Rockford wanted to have a DDA, it would have to create a new one. At this point, the County could opt out, because state law (which was changed in 1995) allows it to. A 30-year time span is not required, but seems to be common to many DDAs.
Comments by our Readers