The Henderson City Council Monday approved a tax incentive program to encourage downtown business owners to make improvements to the overall appearance of downtown without adding to their tax bill.

Downtown Development Coordinator Tracy Madigan explained on Tuesday’s segment of The Local Skinny! that the tax incentives would occur over a five-year period. The idea is pretty simple: when a business owner makes improvements to a building’s interior or exterior,  the presumption that the property value – and associated tax – would also increase.

Through the tax incentive program,  Madigan said the additional tax amount would be waived 100 percent. In Year 2, the percent would drop to 80 percent, and continue at that rate until Year 5, when the tax due would be 20 percent of the higher tax bill.

There are programs in place to help downtown businesses with items like new awnings and signs, she said, but the tax incentive plan provides “a little more meat” to support existing businesses and to encourage new businesses to come downtown.

“This has a lot of teeth to incentivize (downtown business owners) and make improvements downtown,” Madigan said. It’s just one of the things in the proverbial pipeline that she said would motivate improvements in the overall appearance of the downtown area.

Madigan said recent changes made by the City Council to create a separate board to oversee the city’s participation in the NC Main Street program is just one way to strengthen downtown revitalization efforts. The newly created board can focus specifically on the Main Street Program. Previously, the Henderson-Vance Downtown Development Commission board had served in this capacity, and Madigan said creating a new board to focus on the Main Street program will free up the HVDC board to implement additional strategies to support downtown revitalization.

“It’s a way to improve downtown from two different directions – and get more done,” she said.

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