DevelopOhio

A new initiative could extend Cincinnati’s voluntary tax incentive contribution agreement (VTICA) program to areas beyond downtown and Over-the-Rhine to “inject money into affordable housing and to projects in the city’s 50 other neighborhoods,” the Cincinnati Business Courier reports. The proposal, from Mayor John Cranley, Vice Mayor David Mann and council members P.G. Sittenfeld and Kevin Flynn, would expand the program “that is used to pay for the operations of the Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar to other neighborhoods, but it would pay for other priorities,” according to the article. Under the current policy, “known officially as [a] Community Reinvestment Area (CRA)” developers receive property tax abatements for improvements they make to properties and agree to give a portion of the taxes they save to Downtown Cincinnati Inc. to fund the streetcar operations (see our September 21, 2016 blog post). If the program is expanded, half of the proceeds would stay “in the neighborhood where the development occurs” and the other half would go into “a citywide affordable housing fund.” For more, read the full article.