Soltwedel Says He'll Not Support City TIF or Enterprise Zone Extensions Without Multi-Year Pledge

Effingham Unit 40 Board President Delbert Soltwedel Monday said he'll not support an extension of the Effingham TIF District or the City-County Enterprise Zone unless the District gets a multi-year pledge of TIF dollars from the City.

For many years, the City and Unit 40 operated under multi-year agreements with the TIF dollars from the City helping fund the vocational instruction at EHS, a Unit 40 building within the TIF District. In recent years, those agreements have been year-to-year and have involved less revenue than in the early days of the agreements. The reasons for the lessening of the contributions include the overall economic slowdown and the end of state sales tax dollars going into the TIF pot of funds.

Soltwedel contends, though, that Unit 40 is seeing more revenue going into TIF revenues than is coming back to the school district. TIF supporters say the districts have led to economic development and revenue the community would not otherwise have seen.

The discussion came at the end of a special Board meeting Monday evening that involved a lengthy closed session concerning two student discipline matters. The Board voted to expel both students effective immediately through the end of the school year. The students will be referred to alternative education programs.

Board members Jeff Michael and Brian Wick were not present for the meeting.