The Fall River Tax Increment Financing Board convened on Wednesday, September 7th, 2022. The primary purpose of the meeting was to address a proposed revised amendment to the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) agreement between Blount Fine Foods, Blount Realty, and the City of Fall River, originally dated February 25, 2015. Mr. Fiola explained that the previous TIF amendment, approved by the board weeks prior, required revisions based on feedback from the state's Office of Business Development. The state requested a single, integrated TIF agreement rather than two parallel schedules, which Attorney Matt Thomas worked to formulate with Kevin Quiros and Attorney McGovern from the state office. The revised amendment extends the TIF from FY 23 to FY 34 and adjusts the valuation schedule to incorporate the existing TIF. Blount Fine Foods plans a 39,000 square foot expansion, committing to create 70 new jobs within seven years and retain 950 existing jobs. The board emphasized the urgency of approval to meet the state's September 22nd deadline for Blount's state tax credits. The board unanimously approved the minutes from August 3rd, 2022. Subsequently, the proposed revised TIF amendment was approved by a vote of 5-0-1, with one member abstaining, subject to the approval of the Mayor and City Council.
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foreign like to call to order the Wednesday September 7th tax incremental financing award meeting I will call the roll Seth Akins here Pam LeBeau Sean cadine Linda Pereira yeah Frank marcioni here Richie Gonzales yeah and myself present okay pursuant to the open meeting law any person we make an audio or video recording of this public meeting and may transmit this through any media
0:45attendees are there for advised that such recordings and Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived and are deemed acknowledged and permissible let's say the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all um I don't believe we have any citizens input
1:19so we'll move right away to improve the minutes of August 3rd 2022 can I get a motion to approve second second um all in favor all right all right opposed unanimous we are now going to deal with item number six which is the proposed revised Amendment of the tax increment financing agreement buying between block Fine Foods and Blount Realty and the City of Fall River dated February 25 2015 Mr
1:53Fiola yes uh thank you uh Mr Mayor and uh members of the board uh thank you for coming up this morning to address this issue as you may recall we were here just uh maybe two three four weeks ago um addressing the same issue uh that being the the Tiff agreement for the Blount's Fine Food expansion within the industrial pocket uh at that point in time we were working closer to Matt
2:18Thomas to prepare a tiff Amendment to the 2015 original Tiff agreement that attorney Thomas thought would be um appropriate and uh approved by uh by the state uh after the board meeting or actually prior to the board meeting I actually sent it up to the state full review Unfortunately they didn't get back to us until after the tripod and met uh and they had some recommended changes to the proposed uh
2:51Tiff agreement and the amendment that's before you today so over the last two three weeks I know that attorney Thomas has been working diligently with NASA office of Business Development attorney excuse me with Kevin quiros up there in attorney McGovern to formulate a tiff agreement that's going to be acceptable to them what you have before you today is the product of those discussions and
3:20and essentially it is a little bit different in the sense that Blanc already has an existing Tiff on its building and so when you amend the Tiff we had to take into account the existing Tiff in a format that was acceptable to them the previous format that we submitted I thought was acceptable attorney Thomas though is acceptable but they wanted something a little bit different so essentially
3:48we're not changing any of the the terms of the previous Tiff Amendment but what we are doing is incorporating a little bit of the remaining value of the Tiff agreement uh into the schedule of values that's before you today um so the length of this amendment goes from FY 23 to FY 34. uh you can see on your valuation shot there rather than having 60 throughout the term like we
4:23had the last time we now have it at 80 80 75 75 75 75 and then the balance is 60. uh the rationale and the reason why the state wanted to do that was so that we could identify the tip that was currently on the books there and we had to adjust the valuation and the exemption to to do that so nothing else has changed plant was moving forward they're expanding on
4:54site they're putting up a 39 000 square foot expansion uh they're going to create and retain an additional 70 new jobs within seven years they are also going to retain a 950 jobs as part of as part of this proposed Tiff Amendment so essentially nothing has changed from the last time but for new language within the typical agreement and Amendment itself as prepared by attorney Thomas and the valuation
5:25schedule that's currently good for you so having said that I'll be happy to answer any questions that you may have as it pertains to um to this issue can so on the it's on that six million dollars on the assessed value so that is that the aggregate now I'm sorry what is that the uh schedule so that is the aggregate yeah so we kept we kept the increased valuation but we
5:55gave them a higher percentage to take into account um the build up the bill about yeah of the remaining Tiff plus this and I know Richie you were involved in some of these discussions on that right so I've been formulating this agreements right so the state's concern was that there were two parallel simultaneous tiffs for some period of time correct and this really creates a single Tiff that
6:20integrates the first one into the new one correct as opposed to having two different schedules like we had the last time although I do think of Trinity Thomas's approach was correct they just wanted a better more clear approach to it so I think at the end of the day both the original tip amendment that you would approve as well as this would get you to the point where you need to be just in a different format
6:41so going forward we need to be worried that that when this when we add a tip on a tip let's say this will be the new template for it yeah this is the first time that we've actually at least in my rock collection that we've actually had a tiff project start on a project that already had an existing Tiff and how you married the two together was the challenge anything further no I'm good
7:11counselor I yeah I think that I can understand why the state just wants everything basically on one sheet correct and yeah it makes you know it makes sense for their bookkeeping correct and it makes sense for us as well that's going to be the new format that they use right and the urgency here and then we actually called you back so quickly as we have to get this before the Council on Tuesday for right
7:34approval because their full package goes to the state for approval on the 22nd of September so they can't get their state tax credits unless this is approved locally so that's why there's an urgency and I appreciate everybody making time available to do that with that being said I'd make a motion to approve second I have a motion a second any further discussion do that on a roll call can I make one
8:00suggestion on that motion if I could just fail um can you make that just subject to approval of the mayor and City Council in case for some reason they come back with a minor tweak here we don't have to bring it back before the uh yeah so make a motion sorry motion any discussion on the amendment or at the original proposal Mr Akins hi low Sean kadim opened the prayer yes Frank
8:36marcione hi Richie yes and Paul Coogan yes Frank you may want to abstain from this just on this one here we're representing oh yeah okay all right I'd like to change mine uh both too so noticed Dane please um okay any new business to come before the committee any old business with that I'll entertain a motion to adjourn motion toward June second motion is second all in favor all right opposed