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<br /> July 19, 2007 <br />Minutes <br />Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee <br />July 19, 2007 <br /> <br />Place and time: Town Office Building, Room G-15, 7:30 pm <br /> <br />Members present: Alan Levine (Chair), Deborah Brown (Vice-Chair), Richard Eurich, <br />Pam Hoffman, Susan McLeish, Eric Michelson, Rob Addelson (ex officio, non-voting). <br /> <br />Others present: Jeanne Krieger, Gloria Bloom, Susan Yanofsky, Tom Griffiths, Carl <br />Valente <br /> <br />The meeting was called to order at 7:45 pm with a quorum present. Alan Levine <br />welcomed new committee member Susan McLeish. <br /> <br />Sole agenda item: TIF policy and Shire. Specifically, discussion of staff’s draft TIF <br />policy document and some of the specifics of the Shire project. <br /> <br />Resources: (1) Alan Levine’s revised TIF policy points (document distributed by email); <br />and (2) staff’s original draft TIF policy document. <br /> <br />Discussion: <br /> <br /> Jeanne Krieger reported that BOS made minor tweaks to staff’s draft TIF policy <br />document but agreed in concept (no vote taken). <br /> <br /> Susan Yanofsky (Town’s new Economic Development Officer) described TIF <br />authorization process, beginning with application to State for designation as an Economic <br />Target Area for technology, then designation of particular census tracts as Economic <br />Opportunity Areas. BOS has authority to authorize these steps and they have been taken. <br />TIF agreement then is negotiated between the Town and Shire. This agreement then <br />must be voted by Town Meeting and then submitted for State approval. Susan reported <br />that State officials have indicated that they will not look kindly on a proposal that offers a <br />minimum TIF. <br /> <br /> Jeanne Krieger described Peter Enrich’s argument against State incentives as a <br />general policy; he says it is highly debatable that multi-million-dollar companies base <br />location decisions on this relatively small incentive. <br /> <br /> Carl Valente and Susan Yanofsky described various incentives that State may <br />provide to Shire if TIF granted. State can also provide Town with infrastructure money. <br /> <br />st <br /> Carl Valente described timetable: BOS decision on July 31 re whether or not to <br />consider a TIF, end of August deadline to have proposal to present to Shire, concluding <br />th <br />negotiations with shire by Sept 15, then Town Meeting in early October if agreement <br />with Shire reached. <br /> - 1 - <br /> <br />