Jasper commission approves $133,800 technology funding for schools

Jasper's redevelopment money will buy Chromebooks for first- and third-grade students, but the harder question for taxpayers is why a local TIF fund is paying for school technology instead of leaving Greater Jasper Consolidated Schools to absorb the $133,800 cost on its own.

The Jasper Redevelopment Commission approved the request Monday morning, giving Superintendent Dr. Tracy Lorey the funding she sought for the purchase. The vote came with a condition: the money still has to move through a final resolution and invoice process before it is spent.

Commissioners did not treat the request as a routine school line item. They reviewed available balances in the Central, Riverfront and University Heights tax increment financing areas, along with a Baker Tilly analysis of current and projected revenue, before deciding the grant fit within allowable TIF uses. The Central TIF showed the strongest position, with a beginning balance of $1.6 million and annual revenue of about $1.3 million, while the other two areas carried smaller surpluses.

That review also exposed the policy debate underneath the vote: how much of Jasper's yearly redevelopment surplus should be held back for future obligations and how much should be returned now. Clerk-Treasurer Kiersten Knies recommended capping annual economic development-related grants at $100,000 from the Central TIF, noting that the city already sends $25,000 a year to Heart of Jasper. Even so, commissioners said the school purchase fit the fund's purposes because it connected schools, technology and economic development.

The approval followed a broader discussion about the city's TIF structure. On March 3, commissioners had just approved a confirmatory resolution tied to the Horne Allocation Area and a supplement to the Central Area Economic Development Plan. City attorney Renee Kabrick said Baker Tilly and Barnes & Thornburg had recommended making the Horne properties their own allocation area within the Central TIF for flexibility and separate accounting. The Horne properties had remained undeveloped since 1998, and the change was meant to improve marketability.

A related TIF management discussion also covered North Ridge, Central, Riverfront and University Heights, with about $1.1 million in revenue and about $5.8 million in expenditures across those areas. Against that backdrop, the school technology grant stood out as a direct reinvestment in classrooms, not just another item on a redevelopment ledger.