The Greene County Board of Supervisors met Thursday.

The Board passed a resolution by a 4-0 vote, with one abstention, to support the Greene County Career Academy project and using up to $5 million of tax increment financing (TIF) funds. In order for the funds to be accessed, the resolution stipulated several contingencies: the passage of the Greene County School District’s April 3rd bond referendum; completion of legislative processes for the county such as public hearings and public notices, consultation meetings necessary to adopt an urban renewal plan, authorize the academy as an urban renewal project and adopt a TIF ordinance; completion of processes to secure funds; projected availability of TIF and the ability to continue to use it to service the debt necessary to secure the funds; creating a 28E agreement with the school district to utilize the funds for the construction of the academy.

A concern was brought up by Supervisor Mick Burkett about rushing the timeline to organize funds through TIF when he thought the Board decided to use TIF funds for roads and bridges. Chair John Muir said the opportunity came to them to use TIF for another project, but they will also use those funds for county infrastructure needs. Burkett also didn’t like the message that the Board was sending to constituents with them serving as elected officials campaigning for the school district. Muir said they were supporting a career academy that would benefit the county, not just the school district. Muir explained why the Board voted in favor of the resolution.

“We just believe that the career academy part of that total project is very beneficial to Greene County and the surrounding areas. I think because we have TIF money we can use from the windmills, so we don’t per say have to borrow to participate, we just feel this is a very important piece of the future of Greene County.”

Burket abstained from the vote. His reason was he felt the issue was pushed too quickly and he felt he didn’t have enough time to talk to people before he felt comfortable voting on it. He agreed that the project is a good idea.

The County currently does not have TIF in place and Muir said if the contingencies are met and payment needed but TIF isn’t available, they can take a short-term loan from a bank to finance their portion of the project.