You will see a lot of talk about the financial benefit of development in the quarry. But because the quarry is in a redevelopment area (RDA), there are limits to how that money can be spent.

When a project is built in the RDA, it will greatly increase the property value, which means a corresponding increase in the property taxes. In an RDA, all of the increased property tax will go to the RDA. (For property outside the RDA, the property taxes goes to the state and county, which only return a small portion to the City.)

This “tax increment” can only be spent in the RDA – it cannot go into the City's general fund to be spent on city services such as police and fire, and it won’t go to schools because the school districts are separate from the City.

If a hotel is built, it will generate transient occupancy taxes (TOT), also called a hotel tax or room tax. These funds will go to the city general fund, not to the RDA, and can be spent on City services, including police and fire. As with property taxes, TOT funds do not go to schools. (No ballot measure is necessary in order to build a hotel in the quarry.)

Commercial development in the quarry will also generate sales taxes. Sales tax revenues all go to the state, which then redistributes a portion of them back to counties and cities. Currently, the City gets back 12% of the sales taxes it generates. Sales tax revenue goes into the general fund, not to the RDA. (No ballot measure is necessary in order to build commercial in the quarry.)

The RDA was created in the mid-80s and has a 40-year life. When the redevelopment area ends, the property tax increment will revert to being paid to the county, and a portion will be returned to the city and the school districts, just as the base level of property taxes in the area are distributed now.

The reason for creating a redevelopment area in the first place is to capture this tax increment for use in the RDA. These funds can be used to help build the project; for example, to pay for the infrastructure (streets, sewers, bridges, etc.). In this way, tax increment revenues are used to help finance the redevelopment project.