Local Innovation: Tax Base Sharing and The Waterfront by Barry Ford

Barry Ford (center) is the President of Development for Continental Real Estate in Pittsburgh. Ford explained how three municipalities worked together in a tax-base sharing plan to attract The Waterfront Development in the Monongahela Valley. Ford told the story of the intergovernmental cooperation that occurred between Munhall, Homestead, and West Homestead to bring development to an area where the Homestead Works steel mill used to exist and where a vacant brownfield remained. Ford explained that a plan was needed to create infrastructure for development such as roads and sewer lines, and a tax-increment financing district was developed to come up with the money. All three municipalities had different zoning ordinances, and a common zoning ordinance was needed to create The Waterfront. The Steel Valley School District was at the table from the beginning of the discussions. The solution to the question of where each business would go and which municipality would benefit was the creation of a tax-base sharing plan through the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act. Munhall received 30% of the property in the TIF district, 50% is in Homestead, and 20% is in West Homestead. The revenues go into a fund controlled by Allegheny County through the Redevelopment Authority and is redistributed back to the communities according to these percentages. The communities decided to do the tax sharing for twenty years although by law it should exist for fifteen years. They cooperated on zoning, tax-sharing, and set some money aside for other projects such as main street development.