Discussion:
The Shakopee EDA levies their own separate tax, which is not part of the city's general property tax levy, and is identified separately on property tax statements. The EDA levy is subject to to a limit of of 0.0185 percent of the city's estimated market value. The EDA levy cap for 2025 is $1,439,083. The EDA levy is applied to all taxable properties within the city including properties that are currently part of a tax abatement or tax increment plan.
The EDA levy is proposed at $500,000 which is no change from the previous levy. The EDA levy is specifically designated for economic development activities and any funds unspent from year to year will remain in this fund for this purpose.
For the median value home value at $350,700, if the proposed levy of $500,000 is approved the annual property taxes on the median value home would be approximately $20. This is about a $1 less than taxes paid on the 2024 median value home of $338,400.
State statues require the approval of City Council, prior to the tax levy becoming effective. The EDA levy will be forwarded to Council for approval. A preliminary EDA must be certified to the County Auditor by the deadline of September 30, 2024. Similar to the city's levy, the final levy can be reduced, but cannot be increased. However, staff anticipates asking City Council for final approval of the EDA levy at the City Council's September 17, 2024 meeting.
Attached is the 2025 EDA budget and the 2025 River City Centre budget. River City Centre operations are accounted for under a separate sub-fund of the EDA.
The EDA budget includes revenues from the property tax levy, $330k from Shakopee Public Utilities (SPU) based on the payment in lieu of taxes agreement and $28k in general admissions related to EDA's TAP event. Expenditures include $253k for wages and benefits which includes the Economic Development Coordinator plus a half of the Planning & Development Director's time. The EDA budget also includes $25k for legal services, $50k for engineering and $281k in professional services ($70k for facade loan requests/$91k for continued entrepreneurship programming/$25k for Main Street Programming/$30k for TAP event/$15 for marketing/$50k miscellaneous consulting).
The River City Centre budget includes estimated tenant revenues of $416k and a positive net income of $192k. Revenue amounts are best estimates and will be impacted by renewals or tenant turnover.
The EDA (including River City Centre) had a cash deficit at the end of 2023, as a result of the acquisition of the master lease and building improvements to River City Centre. The deficit will be recouped over time through lease revenue and interfund repayments from the administration funds of Tax Increment District #18.