Superintendent: Arcadia TID closure should help school funding

When a pair of tax increment districts (TIDs) close in Arcadia in the next three years, the Arcadia School District should be one of the entities helped at a time when the district is pinching pennies.

The school district is one of the entities that sees its taxable dollars grow when these TIDs close.

TIDs three and four in Arcadia — which include Ashley Furniture improvements and the neighborhood behind the Ashley Outlet store in the southeast corner of the town — were projected to close in 2032 but have exceeded the value they needed to pay back the opening costs.

They are projected to close now in 2026 and 2024, respectively, which could help the district by adding more taxable property to its tax levy.

“Once the TID closes, any dollars that are beyond what are needed to pay off the loan are then divided amongst the taxes and Trempealeau County. Once those TIDS close, the property value goes back into the overall pile of money that’s used to determine the taxable value of the district,” Arcadia schools Superintendent Lance Bagstad told the school board last Monday.

TID four was valued at around $28.4 million, and TID three was valued around $23 million, a total of around $50 million in 2022 equalized property values. Those should grow with inflation.

The money in excess of the original TID opening will come to the district as a one-time check payment usable in day-to-day spending, and then the added tax dollars will be available in the future after closure.

“Since we’re within a couple of years on both of them at this point just be aware that that’s going to be something that’s going to help us in the future,” Bagstad said.