HALLOWELL — A scheduled discussion about a blunder in allocations of funds in two city tax increment financing districts, or TIFs, was postponed Monday.

Finance Committee Chairman George Lapointe said the committee would not be discussing the issue because City Manager Nate Rudy was absent as a result of a family emergency. He said after the meeting the issue would be discussed at the next Finance Committee meeting, but a meeting has not yet been scheduled.

Earlier this month, City Councilor Maureen Aucoin, a member of the committee who served earlier as the city’s assessor’s agent and interim city manager, revealed that property in two TIF districts — one for the Woodlands Senior Living of Hallowell and one for a Summit Natural Gas pipeline — was not assessed as if it were in a TIF district.

By Aucoin’s estimate, a total of $208,765 in property and personal property taxes was put into the city’s general fund in fiscal years 2017, 2018 and 2019, based on $10.7 million in cumulative captured property value. That tax money should have been sheltered for downtown projects, but instead was placed in the general fund; the Kennebec Journal found $78,952 — or 37.8 percent — of the $208,765 was used for city expenditure, while $119,826 — 57.4 percent — went to school district funding and $9,987 — 4.8 percent — went to Kennebec County administration.

 

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