A number of people attending a forum on Thursday said they learned something new about tax increment financing.

Commonly referred to as TIF, tax increment financing is a complex issue, most people said, including the panel of experts in a meeting room at Tri-City Ministries in Independence.

'When we first started this it was new to us,' Pat Campbell, chairman of the Independence TIF Commission. 'It was a learning process.'

The commission has had the better part of 10 years to become more informed about the economic factors associated with TIF.

Progress Independence,a new citizen membership group, sponsored the forum.

'I thought it was good to get different perspectives,' Progress Independence President Eileen Weir said. 'It's hard enough to tackle any issue in one evening.'

Former City attorney Bill Moore, now with the King Hershey Law Firm, has seen the city side and the developer side of TIF applications.

'(TIF) captures existing taxes, or new taxes to be generated by the creation of a redevelopment area, and uses those taxes for paying down debt or paying down certain redevelopment costs,' he said, summarizing his best definition as a panelist.

A redevelopment area, he said, must meet the state's broad definition of blight and pass a test called the 'but-for' test.

'A developer has to demonstrate, prior to adoption of this plan, the redevelopment area on the whole has not been able to be developed without TIF,' Moore said.

Citizens, as could be expected, had questions for the panel.

Monty and Stacy Short had concerns about western Independece, where they live, saying it gets overlooked in favor of 39th Street.

Developer Jim Harpool, a panelist, said the retail market and a change in demographics has caused businesses to pull out of town centers and locate with the sprawl.

'I've always advocated the city hiring a redevelopment manager,' said Harpool, who developed Hartman Heritage Center north of interstate 70. 'Their whole purpose in life is to think about western Independence and downtown.'

Harpool outlined the development conditions that exist in Independence.

'The good news is, there is a lot of vacant land in Independence,' he said. 'The bad news is, it's all rock or river mush.'

TIF helps level the playing field on things like soil conditions.

Independence has used TIF in 16 development projects, including Eastland Center, the proposed Bass Pro Shops and HCA Midwest Hosiptal, Winterstone and Drumm Farm golf courses, the new Hy-Vee at U.S. 40 and Noland Road, and the Santa Fe Trail Neighborhood on Noland Road.

The public questioned the Santa Fe project, asking if the city is on the hook when a development doesn't take off.

City Finance Director Jim Harlow, a panelist, said the city recently reduced the amount of the TIF, which took the city off the hook in the short term. If the developer does not land a tenant soon, the city will have to find a way in the future to pay the debt service.

School districts make TIF discussions interesting, because they are usually a city's largest taxing jurisdiction.

Independence Superintendent of Schools Jim Hinson, a panelist Thursday, said Independence has five school districts. Nearly all of the TIF projects are in the Blue Springs School District.

'As a school district, we have the most ot lose or gain, so we pay attention to these projects,' Hinson said.

Citizen panelists Karen DeLuccie and John Mayfield asked for reforms in the TIF process.

DeLuccie believes TIF takes money out of tax-payers' pockets, and the definition of blight is too broad. She also wants to reform the number of TIF's the city allows.

'There should be some ceiling, or we give the power back to the people to have a vote,' DeLuccie said.

Other panelists believed putting TIF projects to public vote would turn into a popularity contest instead of an economic development issue.

'A lot of problems people have is because of the way the TIF statutes are written, we feel we don't have enough say,' Mayfield said.

Mayfield said TIF projects like the HCA hospital close buildings in the older parts of town and send the new tax revenue to the Blue Spring School District.

'I'm livid about the HCA TIF actually,' Mayfield said, 'I think HCA is the poster case for why TIF needs to be reformed.'

Citizens in the audience like the Shorts, John Hedden, Bob Fisher, Lucy Young and Bruce Van Compernolle insisted TIF should be used to fix blight in the older parts of the city.

Hedden said the 2003 TIF report stated money from closed-out TIF projects was earmarked to repair streets in western Independence.

'Then, in 2004, they took a chunk of it out to match a grant on 39th Street,' Hedden said.

DeLuccie and Mayfield, residents of the northeast part of the city, said U.S. 24 also has a lot of blight, and they wante dto see a future TIF project help out up there.

The forum boiled down to, as Mayfield put it, TIF being neither good nor bad.

'It is up to how it is used.'