Creative Uses of LB840
Jason Tuller
Author
09/26/2024
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4
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Description
Christy Abraham with the League of Nebraska Municipalities speaks about how to navigate gray areas of the LB840 program, creative uses of the program currently seen in communities, and how to structure your community’s LB840 program to fit the needs in your town. Recorded 5/8/2024.
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- [00:00:00.000]Thank you.
- [00:00:29.980]Thank you.
- [00:00:59.960]Christy, I made you a co-host, so you should be able to share your screen.
- [00:01:18.300]Thank you.
- [00:01:20.580]That is very nice of you.
- [00:01:23.540]Makes it easier to do the PowerPoint.
- [00:01:27.260]Yeah, no, I appreciate that.
- [00:01:29.840]Because I noticed I was giving authority to admit guests.
- [00:01:32.400]I felt very powerful.
- [00:01:33.440]Wonderful.
- [00:01:34.480]Yes, thank you.
- [00:01:59.720]Thank you.
- [00:02:29.700]Thank you.
- [00:02:59.680]Thank you.
- [00:03:29.660]Thank you.
- [00:03:59.660]Thank you.
- [00:04:29.640]Thank you.
- [00:04:59.640]Thank you.
- [00:05:01.640]Thank you.
- [00:05:29.640]Thank you.
- [00:05:59.640]Thank you.
- [00:06:29.640]Thank you.
- [00:06:59.640]Thank you.
- [00:07:29.640]Thank you.
- [00:07:59.640]I kind of prefer the interrupting just because then it makes it feel like we're all in it together.
- [00:08:05.340]So if anyone has a question, please just let me know and I'll see if I can answer it.
- [00:08:13.500]So again, I'm kind of starting from the beginning.
- [00:08:17.720]As many of you probably know, the first step that you do for an LB840 plan is you develop the plan.
- [00:08:29.640]It's been our experience here at the league that doesn't necessarily mean it's your city council or village board that's doing it.
- [00:08:37.000]Typically, it's going to be stakeholders in your community that are going to get together and start working on this on the plan.
- [00:08:47.100]I think the state law specifically says that the governing body is going to do it.
- [00:08:51.920]But my experience has been it's the economic development people, it's the Chamber of Commerce.
- [00:08:59.640]It's, you know, people in the community that are interested in LB 840 that actually sort of get this process started.
- [00:09:07.740]And creating the plan is, is that something that seems to happen, you know, in the series of two meetings.
- [00:09:17.720]So certainly don't feel bad if your community is taking several weeks or even months to develop the plan.
- [00:09:23.740]That seems pretty typical.
- [00:09:29.640]Land is sort of in good shape.
- [00:09:31.320]Then you do move on to your city council or village board.
- [00:09:34.760]They have a public hearing on the plan.
- [00:09:37.060]And then, as you know, it's submitted to the voters who ultimately have to decide whether to have an economic development plan.
- [00:09:47.380]And I don't mean to get too much in the weeds, but this is actually in the Nebraska Constitution.
- [00:09:53.040]Typically, public entities like municipalities can't give money.
- [00:09:59.640]They can't give money to private entities, but LB 840 is an exception in the Constitution.
- [00:10:05.060]So if it's voter approved, then yay, then the city can start distributing funds to private businesses.
- [00:10:14.440]I want to talk briefly just about some of the parts of the plan.
- [00:10:23.420]One of the things that state law requires is you have to have an economic system.
- [00:10:29.640]So you have to have sort of an overall economic development strategy.
- [00:10:32.280]You also have to decide the types of businesses and economic activities eligible.
- [00:10:39.180]If I have one piece of advice I would give, it's make that as broad as possible.
- [00:10:46.840]I have seen communities say, well, we really only want child care, or we just really only
- [00:10:54.200]need a grocery store, or they're thinking they want something sort of limited and they
- [00:10:58.680]limit their economic development.
- [00:10:59.640]development plan to something narrow.
- [00:11:04.000]My recommendation is make it as broad as possible.
- [00:11:08.940]And I certainly understand, and you'll hear me say this throughout this presentation,
- [00:11:12.840]there's always political considerations.
- [00:11:15.000]And so some communities call me and they're like, oh, no, no, the voters aren't going
- [00:11:19.120]to vote for it unless it's very, very limited.
- [00:11:21.020]And I appreciate that.
- [00:11:22.640]And if that's the situation, great.
- [00:11:24.260]If you have a community that you think is supportive, just try to make it as broad
- [00:11:29.640]as possible.
- [00:11:30.320]I've actually seen some proposed plans that say, whatever state law allows, that's what
- [00:11:37.040]our plan is going to be.
- [00:11:38.180]So certainly that's helpful, because then you kind of know where you are.
- [00:11:42.520]You also have to decide the total amount of money that you're going to collect.
- [00:11:52.180]And the other sort of part.
- [00:11:59.640]Part of this is you have to decide how long you want your LB 840 program to be in existence
- [00:12:06.720]and how long you want to collect the sales tax or the property taxes or whatever fund
- [00:12:13.520]you're going to use for this program.
- [00:12:15.260]Again, the state law doesn't say how long an LB 840 plan can last.
- [00:12:27.300]My experience has been that.
- [00:12:29.640]Most communities do put a date on it.
- [00:12:31.720]Fifteen years seems like a pretty common number.
- [00:12:36.460]Like, well, we're going to have our LB 840 plan for 15 years.
- [00:12:39.360]And again, I think those are good political decisions for each community to make about,
- [00:12:45.160]you know, if they think that their voters are only going to say, yeah, we'll vote for
- [00:12:49.880]it, but only for this short time frame.
- [00:12:51.780]That's great.
- [00:12:52.960]Um, just know that the state law doesn't provide for.
- [00:12:59.640]An end date that it can only last this many years.
- [00:13:04.880]There is one exception to that.
- [00:13:06.620]I'll get to that later.
- [00:13:07.580]But generally, you can have your LB 840 plan last as long as you want.
- [00:13:11.940]Um, you're going to want some details about how to submit the application that process
- [00:13:19.280]is for businesses to go through.
- [00:13:21.220]And then the final thing, this administration, the administrative system.
- [00:13:29.640]We recently had a community.
- [00:13:32.940]I don't, sorry, I'm at a loss for words.
- [00:13:37.680]It's LB 840 plan literally imploded because of this.
- [00:13:42.920]Um, the village board thought that they were the ones who made the final decisions on who
- [00:13:52.040]got the LB 840 funds.
- [00:13:54.160]And it turns out the plan says, no, actually it's the, um,
- [00:13:59.640]um, local chamber of commerce who was being contracted with to sort of restore the program.
- [00:14:05.300]They had final say.
- [00:14:06.540]It caused huge problems in this community.
- [00:14:10.700]Um, so much so that the city attorney literally decided they had to start over.
- [00:14:18.600]They had to create a new plan.
- [00:14:20.520]They had to go out and have a new vote of the people.
- [00:14:23.160]Yikes.
- [00:14:24.880]Um, so I guess my word of caution is just make sure that,
- [00:14:29.640]when you are putting your plan, what the administrative system is,
- [00:14:33.100]who's going to make those decisions, that it's all very clear
- [00:14:36.200]and everybody understands who's doing that.
- [00:14:38.820]Um, as you probably all noticed with me struggling to even share my screen,
- [00:14:48.600]I often ask PowerPoint to help me design my slides.
- [00:14:52.760]And when I typed in amending the plan, it gave me these skydivers.
- [00:14:57.260]And I thought, oh, is PowerPoint...
- [00:14:59.640]Is PowerPoint telling me, crikey, like amending the plan is really, really scary?
- [00:15:03.720]Or is it saying, oh, no, no, we all stick together.
- [00:15:06.900]Everything is fine.
- [00:15:08.220]So you can take this slide however you want.
- [00:15:11.460]I like to think about it as we all stick together.
- [00:15:14.760]We can do it.
- [00:15:16.100]We can do it.
- [00:15:16.800]The good news, I guess, about from the last slide is there is possibilities to amend the plan.
- [00:15:26.440]So if something comes up and you realize,
- [00:15:29.760]oh my gosh, we really do need an amendment to our plan, that's possible.
- [00:15:34.240]You can do it.
- [00:15:35.460]You just have to understand it's quite a few steps.
- [00:15:40.620]You have to have another public hearing.
- [00:15:42.240]There has to be another vote of the governing body.
- [00:15:45.400]And then it has to go back to a vote of the people.
- [00:15:47.800]So amending the plan is a commitment.
- [00:15:53.120]Because you really do have to have the voters vote again on the amendment.
- [00:15:59.640]Now, there are some exceptions to that.
- [00:16:03.400]State law allows for three types of situations where you can amend a plan without going back
- [00:16:12.180]to a vote of the people.
- [00:16:13.200]One is adding or removing a type of qualifying business.
- [00:16:18.620]So let's say we're going back to my example of the committee that says, you know, we just
- [00:16:24.140]really want child care.
- [00:16:25.140]So we're just going to do child care.
- [00:16:26.560]And then they later realize, wow, actually, there's.
- [00:16:29.640]All kinds of businesses we might like to incent to come to our community.
- [00:16:33.600]That's great.
- [00:16:34.980]You can add a qualifying business without having to go back to the vote of the people.
- [00:16:42.820]Just make sure it's recommended by your citizen advisory review committee and you're good.
- [00:16:46.700]The other things are if you are making sort of technical corrective changes, like if state
- [00:16:54.160]law changes and your plan is no longer sort of in compliance.
- [00:16:59.640]With state or federal law, you can go in and make those corrective changes without having
- [00:17:04.380]to go back to a vote of the people, which I think makes good sense.
- [00:17:08.840]As Jason was sending out these emails about LB840, he's like, yeah, no, I think everybody
- [00:17:18.500]sort of understands the general things that people use LB840 for.
- [00:17:22.940]And yeah, that's typically we think about it as grants and loans to qualifying businesses.
- [00:17:29.640]That's a lot of what a lot of the communities do.
- [00:17:33.480]That's how they use their LB840 funds.
- [00:17:35.860]There is the other possibility of using funds related to costs and expenses.
- [00:17:45.360]So for example, we have some communities who have some land maybe that they own or they
- [00:17:53.920]want to own.
- [00:17:54.660]And so they're buying the land and they're putting in infrastructure, like they're putting
- [00:17:58.580]in utilities.
- [00:17:59.640]So they're buying water, sewer to get that land ready for a potential business to come
- [00:18:04.000]in.
- [00:18:04.260]That is totally okay to use your LB840 funds for that.
- [00:18:10.960]There was a recent change in the Nebraska legislature that allows communities to use
- [00:18:19.580]LB840 funds to comply with the municipal, I want to make sure I get this right, the
- [00:18:29.640]Affordable Housing Act.
- [00:18:30.600]This is an act that applies to cities over 20,000 in population, and these cities have
- [00:18:39.160]to create reports and action plans regarding affordable housing.
- [00:18:44.240]And so the law was changed to say, well, you can use your LB840 funds to comply with the
- [00:18:52.320]requirements of that act.
- [00:18:53.460]So that was a nice thing that they did.
- [00:18:59.640]Again, I would say just from the league, the thing we are hearing most about for LB840
- [00:19:07.060]funds is child care.
- [00:19:09.780]People love that child care has now been added as the list of a qualifying business.
- [00:19:14.360]A lot of people want to spend money on child care and affordable housing.
- [00:19:19.540]Lots and lots of communities are wanting to use LB840 for affordable housing.
- [00:19:24.080]So that's kind of our two, what we're hearing, kind of the biggies.
- [00:19:29.640]This is the list.
- [00:19:30.460]I'm sure you guys all know this, but look, it made a pretty slide.
- [00:19:34.300]So there it is.
- [00:19:35.220]These are all of the businesses that are outlined in state law that you can use LB840 funds for.
- [00:19:45.820]Some of them seem oddly specific to me.
- [00:19:52.340]Like headquarters facilities, like what?
- [00:19:56.620]I don't know.
- [00:19:57.640]That feels...
- [00:19:59.640]I would like to put a plea out.
- [00:20:02.760]If anybody out there is using it for film production and Hugh Jackman is coming to your community to do a film, my request is that a call be made to me.
- [00:20:14.720]He's my pretend boyfriend, so I definitely want to go out and say hi to him.
- [00:20:19.320]He's single now, Christy.
- [00:20:22.480]He is single now.
- [00:20:24.580]Michelle, thank you.
- [00:20:27.060]As his pretend girlfriend, you would think...
- [00:20:29.640]I would know that, but I didn't know that.
- [00:20:31.940]Well, I know how busy you are, so I thought I needed to make sure you were up to speed on that.
- [00:20:36.740]Thank you.
- [00:20:37.940]So good.
- [00:20:39.120]So that now doubly goes, Michelle.
- [00:20:41.660]If Hugh Jackman is coming out to your part of the state, I want to call.
- [00:20:46.360]The communities that have the asterisk by it, or I'm sorry, the businesses that have the asterisk by it,
- [00:20:56.620]those are only available for cities.
- [00:20:59.580]Of the first class second class and villages. So in other words, Lincoln and Omaha can't use their LB 840 funds for those types of businesses, the legislature sort of made that decision.
- [00:21:12.120]That really smaller communities.
- [00:21:16.520]Are more likely to use it, the funds for that.
- [00:21:20.380]This slide, I probably should, this is like burying the lead, but.
- [00:21:28.740]This slide is really important. This is a really recent change, the LB 840 program.
- [00:21:34.740]Municipalities with a population under 5000. So that's all cities of the second class and villages.
- [00:21:44.060]Are not restricted to the statutory list of qualifying businesses activities. So I go back to this slide. So you see this list of all these businesses.
- [00:21:54.080]If you are under 5000, you don't have to worry about it.
- [00:21:58.720]You don't have to worry about that.
- [00:21:59.160]Any business is a qualifying business for you.
- [00:22:04.780]This change was asked for by the city of West Point.
- [00:22:12.720]West Point is very active in using their LB 840 plan and they are a city of the second class.
- [00:22:19.780]That the previous language was 2500 in population or under, and they were over that 2500.
- [00:22:28.700]And they're like, you know, can you change that threshold to 5000 because it seems like it should include all cities of the second class. So this just got changed. I think this is a really important thing for LB 840 that if you are city of the second class or village, you are not as boxed in by this list, the way other communities are.
- [00:22:55.540]The other thing I'll mention is
- [00:22:58.480]qualifying businesses don't have to be
- [00:23:00.860]within the boundaries of the municipality.
- [00:23:02.620]So if you can make a good argument
- [00:23:05.600]that you have a business that wants to locate in your ETJ
- [00:23:10.460]or outside your corporate boundaries, that's fine.
- [00:23:14.580]LB 840 does give you that flexibility
- [00:23:17.180]to bring those businesses in,
- [00:23:20.720]even if they're not in your corporate boundaries.
- [00:23:28.260]So this is just a question we get asked all the time.
- [00:23:31.280]And so, and again, you probably all know this,
- [00:23:35.620]but I just want to reiterate it.
- [00:23:37.120]You can't give LB 840 funds to a public entity.
- [00:23:43.260]You can't give it to a school.
- [00:23:45.240]You can't give it to a community college.
- [00:23:47.080]You can't do it.
- [00:23:50.260]And that's because this program is for private businesses
- [00:23:58.040]if you want to do a project with a public entity,
- [00:24:01.480]then you do an interlocal agreement.
- [00:24:03.160]So if your community is saying, you know,
- [00:24:09.040]let's go in with the school and build a beautiful swimming pool.
- [00:24:14.100]Yeah.
- [00:24:14.640]Say that is such a great idea,
- [00:24:18.120]but we can't do that with LB 840 funds.
- [00:24:21.180]There is this crazy exception for rural natural gas infrastructure.
- [00:24:26.100]I have not heard any municipality,
- [00:24:27.820]those ever used LB 840 funds for that,
- [00:24:30.880]but that is an exception to this general rule.
- [00:24:34.500]Okay.
- [00:24:40.080]This is just a slide to sort of let you know,
- [00:24:46.440]there are 79 communities across the state with LB 840 plans.
- [00:24:51.380]This map I don't know is completely accurate.
- [00:24:53.880]I've had people say, nope, nope, my place isn't on it.
- [00:24:57.600]I show it just mostly to show you that LB 840 plans are statewide.
- [00:25:02.460]There are communities all over the state that are using LB 840.
- [00:25:07.040]And as I said, according to DED,
- [00:25:08.960]there are now 79 municipalities that have LB 840 programs.
- [00:25:13.660]I'm just going to take a brief pause here.
- [00:25:18.420]Is there any questions?
- [00:25:21.320]Is there anything in the chat?
- [00:25:22.660]Is there anything I should be addressing before I move on?
- [00:25:27.380]Okay, great.
- [00:25:30.920]So now I'm going into frequently asked questions.
- [00:25:39.120]So again, this is the number one question the league gets asked.
- [00:25:42.520]So can we give our LB 840 money to schools?
- [00:25:45.820]And friends, we all know the answer to that.
- [00:25:48.960]No, no, you can't.
- [00:25:51.320]You can't give your LB 840 funds to a public entity.
- [00:25:57.160]The act does not allow it.
- [00:25:58.860]And as I say that, now we have this little twist.
- [00:26:04.240]We had a municipal call us and say,
- [00:26:08.140]okay, so we would like to give our LB 840 funds
- [00:26:12.100]to a childcare center.
- [00:26:13.440]They are amazing.
- [00:26:15.300]They're a part of our community
- [00:26:16.920]and they want to build an addition.
- [00:26:19.480]And I was like, great, that sounds classic LB 840.
- [00:26:23.380]And then they said, oh, but the city owns the
- [00:26:26.940]building in which their program is housed.
- [00:26:30.860]So league staff huddled up and our initial answer was,
- [00:26:38.700]no, you can't, no, you can't do this.
- [00:26:43.300]Because by allowing LB 840 funds to be used
- [00:26:49.760]for an addition to their childcare,
- [00:26:51.640]you're enriching the city
- [00:26:54.320]because the city is getting the benefit
- [00:26:56.720]because you are adding the addition
- [00:26:58.860]onto the building that they own.
- [00:27:00.220]And as we have now talked about ad nauseum,
- [00:27:04.600]you can't give money to a public entity,
- [00:27:10.580]which that's what a city is, is a public entity.
- [00:27:13.720]But then the city started pleading with us
- [00:27:20.440]and there were tears.
- [00:27:21.320]It was not pretty, I'm not gonna lie, but I get it.
- [00:27:26.500]I really love this childcare center
- [00:27:28.300]and they were an important part of the community
- [00:27:31.660]and every community I talked to needs childcare
- [00:27:34.860]and I certainly appreciate that.
- [00:27:37.000]So we said, okay, okay, city, how about if you do this?
- [00:27:46.540]How about if you give LB840 funds to the childcare center
- [00:27:50.760]and they use it for other things?
- [00:27:56.280]Use it for operating costs or other things
- [00:27:58.980]and then that the money that they save from that,
- [00:28:02.040]they put their own money into building the addition to the building.
- [00:28:05.920]So it's not LB840 funds building the addition,
- [00:28:09.200]it's their other funds.
- [00:28:11.840]Now, as all of you might be sitting out there thinking,
- [00:28:15.960]that sounds like crazy advice,
- [00:28:17.300]that sounds like you're trying to skirt the law
- [00:28:19.240]and we made it perfectly clear
- [00:28:21.040]that you would have to run this by your city attorney to do it.
- [00:28:26.060]We just want you to know that sometimes things are not as clear
- [00:28:30.200]as you would want them to be.
- [00:28:31.520]And if there is some flexibility to get some things done,
- [00:28:36.040]we would like to be able to do that
- [00:28:38.300]because we understand how important
- [00:28:40.120]some of these businesses are to your community.
- [00:28:43.320]Again, this is a big issue.
- [00:28:51.480]So who gets to approve the funding?
- [00:28:55.840]And I find this to be one of the most frustrating things
- [00:28:59.660]about the LB840 laws.
- [00:29:01.140]There are things in this law that are so insanely specific.
- [00:29:06.460]Like you can only approve the plan
- [00:29:09.060]on alternate Tuesdays wearing purple pants.
- [00:29:11.960]And it's like, okay, that's really, really specific.
- [00:29:15.040]But then other things are left completely wide open.
- [00:29:18.940]And one of the questions that are left completely wide open
- [00:29:21.580]is who ultimately gets to decide
- [00:29:23.740]which entities get the funding?
- [00:29:25.620]That is something you need to put in your plan
- [00:29:29.360]as you're putting your plan together.
- [00:29:30.940]So again, just make sure your plan is really clear
- [00:29:36.440]and full of those important details.
- [00:29:38.960]As I mentioned earlier,
- [00:29:42.400]we had a municipality that did not
- [00:29:45.640]their plan was not written well, and there was lots and lots of confusion about who got to
- [00:29:52.880]approve the funds. And I understand the village board saying, well, we should be approving these
- [00:29:58.640]funds. That was not how the plan was written, and it did create a lot of confusion.
- [00:30:09.080]The city council and the village board do have a lot of duties on the LB 840.
- [00:30:16.360]For example, they schedule the hearings, they pass the resolutions, they pass the ordinances.
- [00:30:25.740]So they do have a large role in your community of getting LB 840 plans created.
- [00:30:34.900]The other thing I think is really interesting is the state law allows a city council or village board to terminate an LB 840 program.
- [00:30:42.840]That does not have to go back to a vote of the people.
- [00:30:46.120]If your city council decides, wow, this isn't working, I want to terminate it, all it takes is a vote of the city council or the village board to terminate.
- [00:30:54.780]So that's a lot of power to be given, I think, to that governing body.
- [00:31:02.000]So, yeah.
- [00:31:04.120]I also just kind of want to add, probably a good idea to let your city council or village board be the ultimate decider on who gets the funds.
- [00:31:15.060]They are the elected officials, plus, you know, do you really want your city clerk to make those decisions?
- [00:31:22.280]Like, that just feels like a bad situation in which to put a staff member, probably best to let the elected officials make that decision and take the heat or take the praise.
- [00:31:33.920]As the situation may be.
- [00:31:35.420]And again, I'm circling back to something we talked about before, but again, we get this question a lot about, do you have to have an end date for your funding of the LB40 program?
- [00:31:52.820]And certainly this is something that needs to be included in your plan when you are creating your plan.
- [00:32:01.380]But state law doesn't.
- [00:32:04.460]Dictate how long the plan has to exist.
- [00:32:06.780]I think a lot of communities seem to pick 15 years.
- [00:32:09.720]That seems to be a common number of years that I hear communities pick.
- [00:32:14.740]Like we're going to let our LB40 plan be in existence for 15 years and see how it goes.
- [00:32:19.980]I think those are really great decisions to make.
- [00:32:25.200]And they're often, as I said, political decisions for you in terms of what you think you can get passed.
- [00:32:32.500]But if you think you can get an LB40 plan passed for 100 years, totally fine.
- [00:32:38.580]You can do that.
- [00:32:40.700]So here's the caveat.
- [00:32:42.380]As I say, there's always a caveat.
- [00:32:44.020]So here's the crazy caveat.
- [00:32:45.800]If you are using sales tax for your LB40, and in order to fund the LB40, you are raising your sales tax to 2%.
- [00:32:58.680]You're raising it up to 2%.
- [00:33:01.640]Then that funding can only last for 10 years, or when the bonds are paid off.
- [00:33:08.540]So I've had a lot of communities call me and say, well, we can only have our LB40 plan last for 10 years.
- [00:33:15.000]That is true.
- [00:33:18.040]If you are funding it with sales tax, and you're increasing your sales tax rate to 2%, then yes, those funds can only last for 10 years, or however long.
- [00:33:31.020]For however long it takes to have the bonds be paid off.
- [00:33:34.860]I'm sorry to say there is one caveat to that that I wanted to mention.
- [00:33:39.800]Here's a slide just to sort of show you that LB840 plans are just constantly being amended.
- [00:33:50.460]The state legislature is always wanting to do something or change something or add something.
- [00:33:55.780]It's typical about every year that we have a bill that changes.
- [00:34:00.780]It changes the LB840 plan.
- [00:34:02.340]So that's why it's so great that all of you are here today because things just change.
- [00:34:08.080]And so it's good, I think, to have a little bit of a refresher on, you know, how things are going.
- [00:34:15.420]And as I mentioned, this is the most recent change.
- [00:34:18.780]This is a really, really big thing for our smaller communities to increase that number from 2,500 to 5,000.
- [00:34:27.120]And again, this is helpful.
- [00:34:30.760]It's helpful in that so if you are a city of the second class or a village, you just have a lot more flexibility on what you can give LB840 funds to, what kind of qualifying businesses.
- [00:34:43.340]Because with this change, if you have 5,000 or less inhabitants, pretty much any business that you want to attract is going to be a qualifying business.
- [00:34:52.520]So that's really good news.
- [00:34:54.120]And that, I guess, means that I'm at the end.
- [00:34:57.940]So I'm going to stop share so I can see everyone.
- [00:35:00.740]So faces.
- [00:35:01.480]And I'm happy to take any questions that you might have.
- [00:35:07.240]I apologize, Jason.
- [00:35:08.040]I'm a bit of a fast talker.
- [00:35:09.540]So I'm sorry that went really fast.
- [00:35:11.220]Right at 1130.
- [00:35:13.580]So we're good.
- [00:35:15.880]But Michelle raised her hand.
- [00:35:17.320]Oh, OK.
- [00:35:18.460]Michelle, hello.
- [00:35:19.540]And then, well, I did the I did the legit thing and then it went away.
- [00:35:24.160]So I don't know.
- [00:35:24.760]But I've got a couple of things and I'll come back because other people may ask.
- [00:35:30.220]But on your timeline of the evolution of the law.
- [00:35:35.640]In 2018, you got it marked that with LB.
- [00:35:39.720]Six something or whatever that's there that it changed the limitation of the fund.
- [00:35:45.480]Can you explain what that limitation was and how it changed?
- [00:35:51.340]Oh, Michelle, you are catching me in something that I'm going to muddle through.
- [00:35:57.680]There was.
- [00:36:00.200]At one point in the law.
- [00:36:01.800]Two funding restrictions.
- [00:36:06.060]One was the one I think most of us think about.
- [00:36:10.380]Like if you are Omaha, you're limited to five million dollars.
- [00:36:13.420]If you're Lincoln, four million.
- [00:36:15.200]If you're city of the first class, three million.
- [00:36:17.840]And then they had this extra one where it was like, but only three fourths of a cent of the city's budget can be used.
- [00:36:28.420]I mean, it was some convalescence.
- [00:36:30.180]It was a deluded thing that nobody understood or used.
- [00:36:33.260]And that's the one that they repealed.
- [00:36:37.340]Okay.
- [00:36:38.800]So in some instances with cities, they have it that was part of the plan because you do have to outline the budget that's there based on what your anticipated receipts are for, you know, and you kind of have to guesstimate.
- [00:36:53.200]And then it says up to a maximum as far as what's contributed.
- [00:37:00.160]For a year, X amount of dollars can be moved over from your sales tax.
- [00:37:06.040]There's like a lid and anything collected over that has to go back to your general fund.
- [00:37:11.100]Is that the limit that was removed or is?
- [00:37:14.580]No.
- [00:37:14.940]No, it's a different one.
- [00:37:15.960]Okay.
- [00:37:16.160]That's still in.
- [00:37:16.880]That's still in.
- [00:37:17.820]Because that can be modified upon renewal or even taken back.
- [00:37:24.660]As I understand it, Michelle, the only limitation right now that L.
- [00:37:30.140]B.
- [00:37:30.300]840 funds have is this limitation of, and I'm good.
- [00:37:35.540]I'm like actually reading the statute now.
- [00:37:37.440]It isn't that helpful.
- [00:37:38.220]So for.
- [00:37:39.900]Yes, it is.
- [00:37:40.440]Actually, you're good.
- [00:37:41.460]Late in Omaha.
- [00:37:43.040]You can only appropriate $5 million.
- [00:37:47.900]In one year.
- [00:37:50.140]For the city of the first class, you can appropriate no more than 4 million.
- [00:37:56.240]And for a city of the second class and village, you can only.
- [00:38:00.120]Appropriate $3 million.
- [00:38:02.500]So.
- [00:38:04.020]Those are the limitations that remain in state law.
- [00:38:07.940]Like I said, that, that fun limitation that went away five or six years ago.
- [00:38:12.200]That was a convoluted thing that nobody really understood or used.
- [00:38:16.940]So it was just good that it went away.
- [00:38:19.100]So the limitations that,
- [00:38:21.220]that individual communities have in their plan is still there.
- [00:38:25.680]So it would be who folks, when they modify those.
- [00:38:30.100]Without having an outrageous lid that's there factor into the,
- [00:38:35.100]to the,
- [00:38:35.740]your equation that if you do bring in more business that generates more
- [00:38:40.300]sales tax,
- [00:38:41.120]you want to at least give yourself the ability to capture that,
- [00:38:46.140]to go into your fund,
- [00:38:48.260]knowing that you may have more things generating those dollars.
- [00:38:52.580]If you keep it too low,
- [00:38:54.160]you get it,
- [00:38:58.480]but it's going to your general fund.
- [00:39:00.080]And if that's okay with you,
- [00:39:01.540]that's okay.
- [00:39:02.780]But plan for that because,
- [00:39:05.080]because otherwise you're limited for a period of a decade or whatever,
- [00:39:09.800]before you can come back and take a look at that.
- [00:39:11.520]Yes.
- [00:39:13.180]And,
- [00:39:13.460]and Michelle,
- [00:39:14.440]you probably know this better than I do.
- [00:39:16.000]I sense that that is a very delicate balance that municipalities work
- [00:39:21.480]through,
- [00:39:21.920]you know,
- [00:39:22.320]how much funds do they want to allocate to their LB 840?
- [00:39:29.220]I mean,
- [00:39:29.580]they want to have,
- [00:39:30.060]they want to have enough so that they use it.
- [00:39:32.460]But you're right.
- [00:39:35.560]If you,
- [00:39:36.100]if you have all this excess fund that you're not using,
- [00:39:39.120]then it's like,
- [00:39:39.660]Oh,
- [00:39:39.860]should some of that go into the general fund?
- [00:39:41.320]So,
- [00:39:41.520]yeah,
- [00:39:41.840]I think it's a,
- [00:39:42.880]it's kind of a delicate balance to kind of figure out what that number
- [00:39:45.780]should be.
- [00:39:46.320]And as long as you're not going over 3 million,
- [00:39:49.640]you're behind in state law.
- [00:39:52.100]And if you have the problem that you have more money than you know what
- [00:39:55.400]to do with God bless you.
- [00:39:56.920]And we all want to live in your town.
- [00:39:58.400]But,
- [00:39:59.600]but,
- [00:40:00.040]but I have seen instances where communities have had it so low.
- [00:40:04.140]And when you,
- [00:40:05.360]when you run through a phase of having people knocking at your door with
- [00:40:09.820]industry,
- [00:40:10.260]that's coming.
- [00:40:10.880]And then you have to say,
- [00:40:11.880]sorry,
- [00:40:12.820]you're going to have to wait a year because we have to wait to the new
- [00:40:15.160]budget cycle comes through before we can do that.
- [00:40:17.480]And,
- [00:40:18.120]and sometimes it's an oversight to get that updated.
- [00:40:20.500]You look at the year and extend your plan,
- [00:40:22.580]but you forget to look at that dollar amount as well.
- [00:40:25.160]So that's just an FYI.
- [00:40:26.580]So I was hoping that that,
- [00:40:29.060]that that little thing,
- [00:40:30.020]that that little thing eliminated it,
- [00:40:31.620]but it didn't.
- [00:40:32.180]So thank you for that.
- [00:40:33.120]You're welcome.
- [00:40:33.740]Thank you for catching that.
- [00:40:35.800]I appreciate that you were like watching my slides.
- [00:40:37.700]That's great.
- [00:40:38.260]We did have a question in the chat here.
- [00:40:45.060]Lauren asked,
- [00:40:47.180]similar to the city-owned property
- [00:40:48.840]and the child care center,
- [00:40:49.980]could a nonprofit business use LB840 funds
- [00:40:53.500]for architectural study
- [00:40:55.020]for municipally owned properties?
- [00:41:00.000]Wow.
- [00:41:00.480]Okay, that's a really good question.
- [00:41:10.140]And I'm saying that not just because I need to delay time
- [00:41:14.200]to think about it a little bit.
- [00:41:15.580]I think if I could go back to my example
- [00:41:20.800]of the child care being housed in the city building,
- [00:41:23.420]I think what caused the league staff heartburn
- [00:41:26.740]was that the first thing they did
- [00:41:29.980]was that the public entity was going to benefit
- [00:41:32.840]from the LB840 funds.
- [00:41:34.560]And I think that's the situation you want to avoid.
- [00:41:38.960]So, and I should look at the chat so I can see the...
- [00:41:46.980]So a nonprofit business,
- [00:41:49.780]I think we can agree that if a nonprofit
- [00:41:53.060]can be eligible for LB840 funds,
- [00:41:56.420]but if you're using it
- [00:41:59.960]for an architectural study
- [00:42:01.760]for municipally owned property,
- [00:42:04.040]yeah, that's a really good question, Lauren.
- [00:42:11.580]I think if it's possible,
- [00:42:14.180]it might be best to have the nonprofit,
- [00:42:19.100]if it receives LB840 funds,
- [00:42:22.120]to use it for something else
- [00:42:23.600]that isn't going to be a study
- [00:42:26.540]on municipally owned property.
- [00:42:28.040]But on the other hand, I guess,
- [00:42:29.940]you know, you can make the argument,
- [00:42:31.220]well, is that really benefiting the municipality
- [00:42:34.260]just by doing an architectural study?
- [00:42:37.900]So, I mean, that's a good question.
- [00:42:42.200]Oh, and look, there's a follow-up.
- [00:42:45.860]Would it depend on the use of the facility
- [00:42:49.620]rather than the ownership?
- [00:42:50.740]I mean, I think that like the childcare
- [00:42:57.960]that's located in,
- [00:42:59.920]the municipal building,
- [00:43:01.660]I mean, certainly there are ties to the city
- [00:43:08.360]because they own the building,
- [00:43:09.360]but the LB840 funds were going to run the daycare itself.
- [00:43:14.920]It wasn't being used to improve the building in any way.
- [00:43:20.360]So I don't know if it's a matter of
- [00:43:24.640]necessarily ownership.
- [00:43:29.900]It's more a matter of you just want to make sure
- [00:43:34.820]that you're not giving LB840 funds to public entities
- [00:43:37.720]that somehow benefit them.
- [00:43:39.540]And I know this is a slippery slope,
- [00:43:44.520]but like I said, in that situation
- [00:43:48.200]about the nonprofit doing the architectural study,
- [00:43:51.640]if somehow that nonprofit could use the LB840 funds
- [00:43:55.560]for something else and then shift the funds over
- [00:43:58.060]to use that, the architectural study,
- [00:43:59.880]that's probably best case scenario.
- [00:44:02.520]But again, you're gonna wanna get legal advice.
- [00:44:06.660]As Michelle has heard league staff say over and over,
- [00:44:09.740]we can't give legal advice
- [00:44:11.520]because we're not your clients.
- [00:44:13.580]So you would definitely wanna check that out
- [00:44:16.280]to make sure it was okay.
- [00:44:17.140]Andy put something in the chat
- [00:44:29.860]do you want me to read it?
- [00:44:31.240]It's just for reference.
- [00:44:33.840]I worked with communities over the years
- [00:44:38.280]that have used LB840.
- [00:44:40.880]I'm trying to start my video, but it's not helpful.
- [00:44:43.260]And a lot of times we're packaging it
- [00:44:47.320]with multiple funding sources.
- [00:44:48.680]I just wanna remind everybody
- [00:44:50.620]that the Center for Rural Affairs
- [00:44:52.020]has some small business loan products
- [00:44:53.920]and that we could assist with that.
- [00:44:55.620]Or if you're using LB840 for housing projects,
- [00:44:59.840]we can partner with that too,
- [00:45:01.000]whether it's a full mortgage
- [00:45:02.180]or it's down payment assistance
- [00:45:03.920]so they can get a traditional bank loan.
- [00:45:06.400]It's just, I recall a lot of times LB840
- [00:45:09.580]isn't gonna fund an entire project.
- [00:45:11.360]They need other funding sources
- [00:45:12.940]and we might be able to help with that.
- [00:45:14.780]Thank you, Andy.
- [00:45:17.920]That's really great.
- [00:45:19.140]I'm really happy to hear about that resource.
- [00:45:22.420]And I will pass that on
- [00:45:25.420]if municipalities ask me that question.
- [00:45:27.360]So thank you.
- [00:45:29.820]So, Christy, can we debate?
- [00:45:36.620]And debate's not really the right word,
- [00:45:39.220]but you and I had discussed a little bit.
- [00:45:41.420]Oh, wow.
- [00:45:44.120]It's been a few years ago
- [00:45:45.280]about the, I think the topic came up.
- [00:45:49.100]Obviously, nuisance abatement
- [00:45:50.620]is a frequent flyer topic
- [00:45:54.360]at conferences with the league
- [00:45:57.920]because nuisance abatement
- [00:45:59.800]is a bane of everybody's existence
- [00:46:03.080]from here to eternity.
- [00:46:04.580]And the use of LB840 funds
- [00:46:08.640]to assist in dealing with that.
- [00:46:11.960]And one of the things
- [00:46:13.700]that we talked about,
- [00:46:14.420]and I think it actually kind of flows
- [00:46:16.600]along the same way
- [00:46:17.740]that you just talked about
- [00:46:19.680]on how you funnel.
- [00:46:21.620]You know, I really hate to use
- [00:46:23.960]some of the verbs
- [00:46:24.620]that really make a lot of sense
- [00:46:26.360]when you talk about,
- [00:46:27.180]we talked about this
- [00:46:28.180]in the presentation the other way,
- [00:46:29.880]when you talk about creativity
- [00:46:31.300]and tax dollars
- [00:46:32.520]and funneling money
- [00:46:33.640]and things like that,
- [00:46:34.340]it really gives a bad impression.
- [00:46:35.640]But talking about utilizing LB840 funds
- [00:46:41.240]on a program that benefits
- [00:46:42.620]the entire community,
- [00:46:43.720]that would be for projects
- [00:46:47.980]that are larger
- [00:46:50.100]in terms of nuisance abatement
- [00:46:51.460]that might be
- [00:46:52.060]big object recycling type things,
- [00:46:58.520]or like if you're removing
- [00:46:59.760]junk vehicles
- [00:47:00.520]or demolition of property
- [00:47:03.680]type things that are there
- [00:47:06.480]and how that may or may not
- [00:47:08.560]be an acceptable use.
- [00:47:13.200]I have a theory on that
- [00:47:14.680]and I think you've already
- [00:47:15.380]touched on it as well,
- [00:47:16.720]but I guess I'd like to have you
- [00:47:17.880]speak to that a little bit
- [00:47:18.840]for some of the folks
- [00:47:20.120]that might be looking at ways
- [00:47:21.220]to be able to handle
- [00:47:22.160]some of those processes
- [00:47:23.160]in their own community.
- [00:47:24.160]Yeah, no, that's a great question,
- [00:47:27.400]Michelle.
- [00:47:28.600]And I know that,
- [00:47:29.740]nuisance abatement is something that,
- [00:47:32.200]wow, I mean, I feel like
- [00:47:34.440]every community has that one property
- [00:47:36.440]where the weeds are overgrown
- [00:47:37.800]and the roof is caving in.
- [00:47:39.000]Like everybody I know deals with that.
- [00:47:41.140]Here's what I'll say about LBA 40 funds.
- [00:47:43.840]You just have to remember
- [00:47:44.920]sort of the basic premise is
- [00:47:46.960]you are giving public dollars
- [00:47:49.320]to private businesses
- [00:47:52.060]for them to locate,
- [00:47:56.300]expand, excel in your community.
- [00:47:59.720]So for example,
- [00:48:00.720]if you had a business in your community
- [00:48:05.320]and what they did was,
- [00:48:07.560]I'm trying to come up with the business,
- [00:48:12.660]that they,
- [00:48:13.400]they're a mowing company
- [00:48:18.620]or they're someone that you can hire.
- [00:48:21.200]They tear down dilapidated buildings.
- [00:48:22.760]Sure.
- [00:48:24.600]They're some sort of construction company
- [00:48:27.040]that yes, you can hire to,
- [00:48:29.700]yes, you can give them,
- [00:48:32.120]you can give them funds
- [00:48:34.540]because they're a private business
- [00:48:37.080]and you can give them funds.
- [00:48:38.200]Now, ultimately,
- [00:48:39.920]the city has to make the determination
- [00:48:44.120]about whether or not to condemn
- [00:48:46.000]and tear down a property
- [00:48:47.040]or the city ultimately has to make the decision
- [00:48:50.100]about nuisance abatement
- [00:48:51.800]and what is going to be done.
- [00:48:53.900]So those are all city decisions,
- [00:48:55.860]but let's just say hypothetically,
- [00:48:57.520]the city is like,
- [00:48:58.380]you know, we are really going to cut
- [00:48:59.680]that down on people
- [00:49:00.520]not cutting down their weeds.
- [00:49:02.700]And so we're going to issue
- [00:49:05.300]citations to all these properties
- [00:49:07.980]who aren't doing it.
- [00:49:09.000]And when they don't do it,
- [00:49:10.260]we're going to go in
- [00:49:11.200]and we're going to do it themselves.
- [00:49:12.460]And they hire this company
- [00:49:14.540]to come in and mow everybody's yards.
- [00:49:17.420]That's probably OK,
- [00:49:20.400]because what you've done
- [00:49:21.780]is you've given LB840 funds
- [00:49:23.660]to a private entity.
- [00:49:26.320]I don't think it's a scenario
- [00:49:28.440]where the city
- [00:49:29.660]itself could take the LB840 funds
- [00:49:32.180]and start mowing people's yard
- [00:49:33.460]or tearing down houses.
- [00:49:34.880]Because again, that's
- [00:49:36.700]giving money to a public entity.
- [00:49:39.540]So that is not OK.
- [00:49:40.980]But if you're giving it
- [00:49:41.960]to a private business
- [00:49:43.060]who is doing that kind of work
- [00:49:44.640]that the city contracts with,
- [00:49:46.100]I think you're OK there.
- [00:49:47.680]Correct. I would agree.
- [00:49:50.040]And I think to expand on that as well,
- [00:49:52.800]when you're talking land bank,
- [00:49:54.240]land bank,
- [00:49:56.120]when you indicated earlier
- [00:49:58.180]that interlibrary
- [00:49:59.640]agreements are ways
- [00:50:01.700]to get projects done,
- [00:50:02.740]we have established that
- [00:50:04.300]LB840 dollars cannot be given
- [00:50:06.980]to land banks because they are
- [00:50:08.940]pseudo public entity
- [00:50:11.920]because it is a public entity
- [00:50:14.000]that comprises the land bank.
- [00:50:15.460]However, there are contractors
- [00:50:17.800]that will be doing the work
- [00:50:19.200]for the land bank.
- [00:50:20.820]So part of the funding
- [00:50:25.260]of operations on how the work
- [00:50:27.200]gets done within the land bank
- [00:50:28.820]might be done
- [00:50:29.620]be sending those contractors
- [00:50:30.980]back to the local governments
- [00:50:32.880]and going through the application
- [00:50:34.540]process as well
- [00:50:35.720]in a very similar fashion
- [00:50:37.740]on how those properties
- [00:50:39.720]are dealt with,
- [00:50:40.400]whether it's funding
- [00:50:41.800]their operations to make sure
- [00:50:43.060]they have the appropriate fuel
- [00:50:45.080]equipment or whatever
- [00:50:48.200]to deal with removal
- [00:50:50.220]of if it's a vacant lot,
- [00:50:51.580]getting things off the lot
- [00:50:52.820]or special whatever it is
- [00:50:55.740]to take a building down
- [00:50:56.800]or to secure whatever it may be.
- [00:50:58.940]So those are the things
- [00:50:59.600]to think through again
- [00:51:01.760]is how you get the money
- [00:51:03.280]to get the project done
- [00:51:04.740]is just a matter of
- [00:51:06.100]who you're giving it to.
- [00:51:07.400]Yep. Well said, Michelle.
- [00:51:09.640]Yeah, I think that's right.
- [00:51:10.740]So at a place
- [00:51:17.380]that shall remain nameless,
- [00:51:19.080]we had a 1% sales tax
- [00:51:21.860]and half of that money
- [00:51:24.160]went to community development
- [00:51:25.520]and half of that
- [00:51:27.020]went to the LB 840 program.
- [00:51:29.580]And the city council
- [00:51:30.940]kind of used that
- [00:51:31.740]community development money
- [00:51:33.300]more or less like a slush fund.
- [00:51:35.860]So anything that they needed
- [00:51:37.860]that came outside of
- [00:51:39.400]they didn't really want
- [00:51:41.240]to spend the city budget on,
- [00:51:42.480]they would use the LB 840.
- [00:51:44.480]What we call the LB 840,
- [00:51:47.420]which was a community
- [00:51:49.160]development site.
- [00:51:50.020]Is that something that
- [00:51:51.540]communities can do
- [00:51:52.600]if it's in their plan?
- [00:51:53.540]Because you could use
- [00:51:55.120]that local option sales tax
- [00:51:57.320]not as LB 840.
- [00:51:59.560]You could use it just to
- [00:52:00.500]reduce property taxes, right?
- [00:52:02.300]And that's what's, again,
- [00:52:05.540]a great example of
- [00:52:07.300]why your plan has to be clear
- [00:52:10.160]and your ballot language
- [00:52:11.840]has to be clear.
- [00:52:13.360]Because I think if
- [00:52:16.980]on the ballot it said
- [00:52:19.600]half a cent is going to be used
- [00:52:21.340]for LB 840
- [00:52:22.160]and half a cent is going to be used
- [00:52:24.800]for community
- [00:52:25.640]betterment,
- [00:52:27.120]improvement,
- [00:52:28.640]community
- [00:52:29.540]something.
- [00:52:30.100]Yeah.
- [00:52:31.080]Sorry.
- [00:52:32.300]And these are really helpful hand gestures.
- [00:52:34.120]Don't you think everybody?
- [00:52:34.960]Okay.
- [00:52:35.600]Yeah, there you go.
- [00:52:39.000]See, this is why Jason's
- [00:52:40.460]never going to invite me back.
- [00:52:41.440]Okay.
- [00:52:41.960]The half cent that goes to LB 840,
- [00:52:46.560]that really needs to be funneled
- [00:52:49.940]into the special LB 840 account,
- [00:52:51.960]the separate account
- [00:52:52.780]that has to be established
- [00:52:54.000]that's separate
- [00:52:54.800]from your city general funds.
- [00:52:56.460]And that can only be used
- [00:52:58.160]for LB 840.
- [00:52:59.520]This other half cent
- [00:53:01.880]that's going to be used
- [00:53:03.700]for community betterment.
- [00:53:04.600]Yeah, I think you've got
- [00:53:06.640]a lot of flexibility there
- [00:53:08.560]with that half cent.
- [00:53:10.240]I think your only restrictions
- [00:53:12.040]there are ensuring
- [00:53:14.380]that it's a public use.
- [00:53:16.200]So for example,
- [00:53:18.440]there are some things
- [00:53:19.980]that are not considered
- [00:53:20.980]a public use.
- [00:53:21.660]Like you can't say,
- [00:53:22.700]you know, we've just decided
- [00:53:24.160]to give all this money
- [00:53:25.120]to this fireworks company
- [00:53:26.600]because they put on
- [00:53:27.400]this great display
- [00:53:28.320]on 4th of July.
- [00:53:29.000]We can't,
- [00:53:29.500]we can't do that.
- [00:53:30.060]But if you are improving
- [00:53:32.280]your parks,
- [00:53:33.420]you know,
- [00:53:35.920]you can,
- [00:53:36.800]you can have a lot of flexibility
- [00:53:38.120]with that money.
- [00:53:38.660]I just want to be clear
- [00:53:40.240]that that money
- [00:53:41.680]that goes into the LV840 program,
- [00:53:43.720]that really has to be funneled
- [00:53:45.840]into its own special account
- [00:53:47.140]and only be used for LV840.
- [00:53:48.760]Okay.
- [00:53:49.280]Right.
- [00:53:49.920]Yeah.
- [00:53:50.440]Sorry.
- [00:53:57.200]I hate to hog this.
- [00:53:58.960]So,
- [00:53:59.480]question.
- [00:54:00.180]If a community wants to
- [00:54:04.000]do economic development,
- [00:54:08.080]doesn't necessarily increase
- [00:54:12.200]their sales tax collection for it.
- [00:54:14.300]They're able to budget
- [00:54:17.260]from their general fund
- [00:54:20.240]monies that can be used
- [00:54:22.220]for economic development.
- [00:54:23.380]That does not necessarily
- [00:54:26.400]obligate them
- [00:54:27.580]to follow the LV840
- [00:54:29.460]Act, the local option
- [00:54:31.900]statute.
- [00:54:33.700]Is that correct?
- [00:54:34.600]That is correct.
- [00:54:38.140]As you know,
- [00:54:40.820]then the issue is
- [00:54:43.400]if you're not using the LV840,
- [00:54:45.220]then you can't give those dollars
- [00:54:47.700]to private entities.
- [00:54:48.860]They can only be used
- [00:54:51.580]for a public purpose.
- [00:54:53.180]So, for example,
- [00:54:55.480]you couldn't,
- [00:54:57.440]you know, like if you wanted to,
- [00:54:59.440]have a grocery store
- [00:55:01.080]come into Bayard,
- [00:55:02.420]you can't give that money
- [00:55:03.980]to a grocery store
- [00:55:04.900]to come and locate in Bayard.
- [00:55:06.500]You could with LV840,
- [00:55:08.840]but you can't
- [00:55:09.960]because public dollars
- [00:55:12.120]can only be used
- [00:55:13.160]for public purpose.
- [00:55:14.100]The LV840 dollars
- [00:55:16.240]are a constitutional exception to that.
- [00:55:18.540]So you just have to understand
- [00:55:20.820]that the different pots of money
- [00:55:22.520]are going to be able
- [00:55:24.280]to be used in different ways.
- [00:55:25.640]And as long as you understand
- [00:55:26.880]the limitations of each,
- [00:55:28.280]you know,
- [00:55:29.420]you don't have to do an LB 840
- [00:55:30.820]if you think your community
- [00:55:32.060]is better off,
- [00:55:32.760]you know, doing it a different way.
- [00:55:34.680]I think the biggest thing
- [00:55:37.440]the public needs to understand
- [00:55:39.040]that for one thing,
- [00:55:39.860]because they always think
- [00:55:40.720]you've got all this money sitting there.
- [00:55:42.100]I said, well, yeah, they do.
- [00:55:43.000]But you've got to understand
- [00:55:43.900]cities have to use it
- [00:55:45.880]for what is designated.
- [00:55:46.880]So help me understand
- [00:55:51.780]because you do run the risk
- [00:55:54.620]of not being able to budget
- [00:55:56.780]for it from year to year.
- [00:55:59.400]If you're just doing
- [00:56:01.020]a general economic development budget item,
- [00:56:03.260]it may be that next year
- [00:56:05.140]that budget item isn't there
- [00:56:06.480]because you just can't fund it.
- [00:56:08.340]But can you give an example
- [00:56:10.240]of what general purpose
- [00:56:11.860]economic development might be?
- [00:56:13.440]Sure.
- [00:56:16.580]There is a state statute.
- [00:56:21.360]And again, Michelle,
- [00:56:22.760]you would think I would know
- [00:56:23.960]it off the top of my head.
- [00:56:25.120]Let's say it's 13-315.
- [00:56:27.220]Let's just say that's what it is.
- [00:56:29.380]The Supreme Court has upheld
- [00:56:32.060]this statute as constitutional
- [00:56:33.780]and it lists all the things
- [00:56:35.760]that it's okay to use public funds to do.
- [00:56:37.860]Like, for example,
- [00:56:39.040]you can do things like a publicity campaign.
- [00:56:42.320]Everybody should move to Sydney.
- [00:56:44.880]It's this amazing community.
- [00:56:46.800]And so you have a public campaign
- [00:56:50.060]about here's why you should come
- [00:56:51.720]or encouraging people to come and live there.
- [00:56:53.760]You can do all of those things
- [00:56:57.020]with public.
- [00:56:59.360]Dollars.
- [00:57:00.040]There are probably
- [00:57:02.660]improvements that are clearly
- [00:57:06.480]a public purpose,
- [00:57:09.300]like improving parks and recreation
- [00:57:12.960]or having you softball.
- [00:57:15.880]All of those things are fine
- [00:57:17.680]to use public dollars to do that for.
- [00:57:20.260]What the Supreme Court has said you can't do
- [00:57:24.280]is give public dollars
- [00:57:26.200]to a private entity to locate.
- [00:57:29.340]Or to buy land
- [00:57:31.580]so a manufacturing plant will move there.
- [00:57:35.360]Those are things you can't do,
- [00:57:38.240]again, unless you have an LBA for you.
- [00:57:40.340]And then you can.
- [00:57:41.400]Sorry, sometimes I get in the weeds.
- [00:57:54.040]I apologize.
- [00:57:54.660]The unmowed weeds, Michelle,
- [00:57:59.320]I'm sifting through the unmowed weeds.
- [00:58:01.920]Well, we're coming up on time.
- [00:58:18.640]Does anybody else have any final questions
- [00:58:21.200]or anything for Christy?
- [00:58:22.180]Or Christy, do you have any final words of wisdom?
- [00:58:24.480]Just thank you again so much for inviting me.
- [00:58:27.780]I'm so glad to be with you
- [00:58:29.300]and if after this you have questions for me,
- [00:58:34.880]is it okay if I give my email address
- [00:58:38.020]and they can contact me?
- [00:58:40.380]So my email is christya at l-o-n-m dot org.
- [00:58:48.100]So if you think of something later
- [00:58:49.600]and you just want to reach out and ask,
- [00:58:50.880]please don't hesitate to do that.
- [00:58:53.480]The League wants to be helped.
- [00:58:55.560]We can be.
- [00:58:56.280]So thank you so much for inviting me.
- [00:58:59.280]All right.
- [00:59:00.840]I dropped that in the chat
- [00:59:02.300]if anybody needs it there.
- [00:59:03.780]So thumbs up, Jason.
- [00:59:06.980]Thank you.
- [00:59:07.780]Yep.
- [00:59:08.480]So thank you, everybody, for coming.
- [00:59:10.700]Like I said, I think Jamie
- [00:59:12.000]will be back next month
- [00:59:13.180]and everything will be back tomorrow.
- [00:59:15.420]So maybe if you're lucky,
- [00:59:17.320]she'll put the baby on screen for you.
- [00:59:18.920]So all right.
- [00:59:21.640]Well, thank you again for showing up
- [00:59:23.320]and we will see you around.
- [00:59:25.780]Thank you so much, everybody.
- [00:59:27.420]Bye bye.
- [00:59:29.260]Thank you.
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