The Washington City Council on Monday heard plans to start its own redevelopment commission.

Introduced was an ordinance that would create a city Redevelopment Department and a Redevelopment Commission. Currently, there is a redevelopment commission for Daviess County but not for the city.

The council heard from Gabriel Bender, an attorney for Baker and Daniels, on the provisions of the new commission. The commission would have five members, all serving one-year terms. Three members would be appointed by the mayor and two would be appointed by the council.

Bender also said because of the property tax reform package passed this year in the state legislature, a Washington Community School Board member would have to sit on the commission as a non-voting member.

The purpose of the commission is to help finance economic development projects through tax increment financing, or TIF, districts in the city. In the county, projects like the West Gate @ Crane Tech Park and Grain Processing Corp. have been helped with TIF funding.

“You take an area that you have chosen for redevelopment and property taxes are set at a base level,” Bender said. “As taxes increase, that additional property tax revenue above that base level within that district will go to the redevelopment commission.”

Those proceeds would then be used to fund further projects, such as infrastructure or buildings for more projects.

“If there is a company that wants to put some kind of manufacturing facility in town and you want to provide some kind of incentives for them, if you establish a TIF area, you could issue bonds that would be paid by future revenues from property taxes,” Bender said.

Council member Joe Fleck said TIF districts have helped in Gibson County and in Princeton. Fleck works at Toyota.

“Gibson County really benefited from TIFs,” Fleck said. “One fellow started with one warehouse (when the district was created). He’s already built seven and he’s working on another warehouse.”

After the meeting, Mayor Larry Haag said the city’s redevelopment commission would work with the county’s redevelopment commission to improve utilities and infrastructure.

“We would like to partner with the county as things continue to grow,” Haag said. “For instance, on SR 57S towards Wal-Mart. We can only TIF out to a certain area but if the county and city work together, we could stretch that area.”

Haag said the idea came partly from Daviess County Economic Development Executive Director Ron Arnold. Haag said he has worked with Arnold to get the commission going.

“He thought this was a very good idea,” Haag said. “He encouraged us to do this.”

The council will vote on the ordinance at its next meeting on May 20. If the council votes for the commission, the members would have to be appointed and a redevelopment plan would have to be formed.