Fees & public finance
Tax increment financing (TIF)
Financing that freezes a district's assessed-value base and steers future property-tax growth — the increment — to improvements within the district.
Definition
Tax increment financing freezes the assessed value of a district in a base year; as values grow, the property-tax revenue attributable to the growth — the increment — is diverted from the normal allocation to fund improvements (and debt service on bonds) inside the district. California's redevelopment agencies ran TIF at scale until their 2012 dissolution, upheld in CRA v. Matosantos. The modern successors — EIFDs, community revitalization and investment authorities (CRIAs), and kindred districts — are consent-based and can never capture schools' shares.
Why it matters in an underwrite
TIF is infrastructure someone else pays for over time, so underwrite the district like a counterparty: increment projections depend on assessed-value growth that your own project may be expected to supply, and a district formed last year has little cash until development lands. In former redevelopment project areas, layer in the dissolution machinery — enforceable obligations and pass-through history can encumber the very increment a new district hopes to capture.
Sources & related guides
See also
See the term in the law itself
Read the controlling text in the Code Library, or ask the AI how it applies to your project.
Last reviewed 2026-07-29. General information, not legal advice.