Helping Our Communities with Planning & Project Financing

L-R: Optimist Club Vice President Barb Stockhausen, Bart Neis from Delta 3 Engineering, and Optimist Member Jerry Schewe

Bart Neis, President and Owner of Delta 3 Engineering, spoke to the Optimist Club about community planning and project financing. Delta 3 Engineering works with 91 communities throughout Wisconsin and Iowa. Bart personally works with 80 of them taking care of their public works needs and grant writing. He estimated that they work with ~400 projects/year and shared that he as written $232 million in successful grants applications for communities in recent years.

Community financing starts with a good plan. Then you need to establish goals and objectives, collect information, and develop capital improvement cost analysis. The next step is for communities to find a way to finance the improvements. Because cities and counties are limited to receiving their income from taxpayers and borrowings, they need to be creative to finance improvements without raising taxes. Bart shared that there are a lot of municipality grants available that "someone is going to get...so why not us" or other local communities. Both federal and state grants are available. Project funding programs include:

• DNR funding programs

• Public Service Commission

• DNR Recreational Boating Facilitating

• Municipal Flood Control Grant (MFC)

• Community Development Block Grant for Public Facilities (CDBG) - used for water, sewer, streets, fire stations, libraries, etc

• USDA - Rural Development funding programs

• Department of Transportation

• Tax Incremental Funding Districts (referred to as TIF's and/or TID's)

Bart spoke a lot about tax increment financing in districts. The purpose of a TIF is to designate an area for public improvement with minimal impact on property taxes. They are a great way to keep costs down for citizens. There are five types of TIF's:

• Business / Industrial Parks

• Downtown Areas

• Mixed-Use (commercial and residential - 35% can be residential)

• Blighted Industrial / Downtown areas

• Residential

Taxing entities (communities, schools, counties) receive income from the original assessed amount, not the increasing value of the improved area, as those funds are used to repay the loans and make other improvements. The real gain is from the property taxes assessed to businesses that relocate or expand and the homes that are built in the community because of the improvements. All industries gain from a TIF district.

Thank you, Bart, for sharing your experiences and talents with our club, the Platteville community, and other surrounding communities!