By John Kiesewetter
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HAMILTON - Butler County commissioners want to look deeper into Commissioner Michael A. Fox's innovative plan that he says would finance up to $214 million in road and infrastructure improvements from new housing growth.

Fox wants to place unbuilt subdivisions across the county into special taxing districts, diverting a percentage of revenues into a county construction fund.

The county could reap $166 million from these residential tax-increment financing districts, if applied to every subdivision platted - but not yet built - in just 10 parts of the county, Fox said.

The areas are Liberty, West Chester, Fairfield and Ross townships and the cities of Monroe, Trenton, Fairfield, Hamilton, Middletown and Oxford.

If combined with a federal highway borrowing program, the total fund could leap to nearly $215 million to build the Interstate 75 Liberty interchange, widen the Ohio 4 Bypass, extend Ohio 63 from Monroe to Trenton, or other county projects, Fox said.

"It's mind-boggling," said Commission President Chuck Furmon.

For years, Ohio communities have used tax-increment financing to pay for improvements in an area using anticipated increased tax revenues - the tax increment - from commercial and industrial districts. The tax payments - called "service payments" - go into a special fund, not the general fund.

Fox says a new law allows counties, cities and townships to create similar districts for new subdivisions. Fox has suggested that all residential developers agree to place their new subdivisions into special taxing districts when seeking approval for subdivision plats.

People who buy homes there already would be in the district, and part of their taxes would go into the tax-increment fund, he said.

"The homeowner will pay the same taxes. It's totally transparent to the homeowner," Fox said.

After experts crunch and check Fox's numbers, commissioners will explain the financial proposal to city, township and school officials. According to Fox, schools would not lose money because the new subdivisions would be exempt from a school district's total property valuation. Under the school funding formula, state aid drops as property values increase. Schools also could receive payments in lieu of taxes from these new county funds, he said.

"In no instance does a school district receive less money than the district would have otherwise received," Fox said.

Lakota Schools Treasurer Allan Hutchinson called Fox's plan "an interesting concept, as long as state funding for schools doesn't change." Hutchinson said he will ask the school's bond counsel and state education experts about the proposal. "We need to see how it affects our state funding," he said.

City and township officials would have to agree to give the increased taxes from new subdivisions to the county, Fox said.

E-mail jkiesewetter@enquirer.com