MANSFIELD — Ohio created a tax increment financing tool nearly 50 years ago, available to local governments in the state to finance improvements that support economic development.
The City of Mansfield had never taken advantage of the program — until now.
City Council on Tuesday night unanimously approved a TIF that would help pay to improve a portion of Possum Run Road near the intersection of I-71 and Ohio 13.
The 10-year, 75-percent agreement with Cocca Development Ltd. from Youngstown is for the new Tractor Supply Company and Five Below stores being finished at the 3.5-acre site, a development that encompasses about 30,000-square feet.
A TIF allows the increase in assessed value of an improvement to real property to be exempt from real property taxation and instead have those funds assist with costs necessary for a project to move forward.
The pre-development value and associated taxes are considered the “baseline” and are excluded from the TIF. Those “baseline” taxes continue to go to the normal taxing authorities as they would have before the TIF was enacted.
In other words, a TIF never results in lesser taxes being paid than pre-development. There are almost 2,000 such TIFs around the state of Ohio, including the City of Ontario.
(Below is a PDF showing the Tax Increment Equivalent agreement approved by Mansfield City Council on Tuesday that will help improve Possum Run Road near the interchange of I-71 and Ohio 13.)
The timing of this TIF vote was critical, coming on the final council meeting of 2025, according to Barrett Thomas, director of economic development for Richland Area Chamber & Economic Development.
The city contracted with the chamber for development services in January of 2025.
“A TIF needs to be approved the year before it goes into effect,” Thomas said. “The building looks like it’s finished now, but the auditors haven’t assessed that (increased) value. They haven’t driven around the community and found value in tax year 2026.
“So if we can get this TIF in place this year, it then will be in place before the auditors find new value in that property next year. That’s how we capture that increase in value. If it doesn’t happen this year, then we don’t capture that value,” Thomas said.
For a decade, rather than pay the full property tax, the developer will pay an amount equal to 75 percent of the tax value to the city into a special TIF fund.
After the 10 years, 100 percent of the property taxes will flow to their normal recipients. In this instance, the largest recipient would be Lexington Local Schools.
(Below is the Mansfield City Council meeting as captured Tuesday on the city’s livestream channel on YouTube. Discussions about the TIF described in this story start at the 4:42 mark of the video.)
Thomas said the first TIF payment to the city would come in 2027, based on the new tax appraisal in 2026.
Mansfield Mayor Jodie Perry has said it will result in about $500,000 for improvements to Possum Run Road, including widening and creating a turn lane for the two-lane road near the Walmart Supercenter.
“We’re choosing to do this because we do think that at some point Possum Run Road may need a turn lane added. There are other developments looking at that area and have been for some time,” Perry said Tuesday night.
“They’re not moving forward yet so more to come on that. We wanted to make sure that we had that ability, because obviously when you’re talking about adding a lane on a road, it gets expensive,” the mayor said.
“The engineer estimates that to be about $300,000 to $400,000 so this should do that, as well as anything else that may pop up along with that project,” Perry said.
“Obviously, we’ll be collecting it for some years before we’re using it, but it should give us what we need to do that improvement,” she said.
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Tax deal with developer may help widen Possum Run Road on Mansfield’s south side
City Council on Tuesday is expected to vote on a tax agreement that would help improve the road near the intersection of I-71 and Ohio 13.
