By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

This may be a bit smaller than some imagine, but is the mountain Cabela’s has at one of its stores, as shown on its Web site. Fourteen Cabela’s stores around the U.S. feature similar displays.

Hooksett voters will soon weigh in on an $18 million proposal for a business development district, one that’s drawn attention locally, statewide and throughout New England.

Local planning and economic experts have heralded the plan as a historic opportunity to invest in Hooksett’s long-term prosperity, while detractors have been skeptical of the town’s partnership with a private developer and have questioned risks the plan may present to Hooksett’s taxpayers.

The $18 million plan relates to a 150-acre stretch of land off Interstate 93’s Exit 11, defined as Hooksett’s tax increment financing, or TIF, district, one of only about 20 such districts statewide.

While economic development experts tend to agree that TIF districts can be valuable and relatively risk-free tools to rehabilitate a blighted area or draw commercial and industrial growth, questions surrounding TIFs ultimately tend to lean toward the philosophical.

“The question, when you talk about a TIF, is always: ‘What are the needs of the people in that community?’” said John Romps, associate professor of economics and business at Saint Anselm College in Goffstown. “Are the people of Hooksett going to be happier and better off with that development in place?”

History of success Romps said most New Hampshire municipalities that have dabbled in TIFs have had good success, and said TIF districts are gaining momentum throughout the state as a means of fostering economic development.

Manchester used TIF-like funding, using public money to spur private development, to enable the Verizon Wireless Arena, which has been an integral part of the city’s economic revitalization.

The city of Claremont has created two TIF districts, one that has brought in industrial developments, and a downtown district in which previously defunct mill buildings will soon host 47 condominiums, a hotel, a restaurant and office space.

“The city has been spending a good amount of money on infrastructure across the board,” said Anthony Lyons, Claremont’s planning and development director. “We think that’s the key to a good quality of life.”

In Keene, a TIF plan provided infrastructure to support a parking deck for a downtown hotel. The TIF development then lured in an additional 170,000 square feet of commercial developments to the city center.

“We’ve had very good success,” said Keene Planning Director W. Rhett Lamb. “It’s always seemed a little curious to me that other municipalities haven’t jumped into TIF districts.”

Criticism of TIFs
Despite such success stories, TIF districts – which gained popularity in the 1960s and 1970s when federal funding for mending blighted communities was greatly reduced – are not without their critics.

Romps said some common criticisms of TIF districts are that they can put taxpayers, rather than developers, at financial risk, that TIF revenue doesn’t feed directly into schools, and that a TIF plan can function as a corporate kickback, one potentially detrimental to a community’s established local businesses.

Several Hooksett residents at a recent public hearing on Hooksett’s proposed $18 million TIF bond questioned whether the town should enter into such a pricey agreement with a private developer.

Both residents and town councilors have questioned whether Hooksett’s local taxpayers should shoulder any financial liability for an economic plan that serves to benefit the state, which would gain infrastructure to the highway exit and perhaps a regional tourism destination.

Hooksett’s TIF development in question is a 150-acre area to be anchored by a 130,000- square-foot Cabela’s retail store. Nearby retail developments – like hotels, restaurants, and recreational parks – are anticipated to follow.

The Hooksett plan
Of the $18 million proposal, $4.5 million is earmarked for direct improvements to the town’s infrastructure, while the remaining $13.5 million would go toward improvements to facilitate the TIF developments.

Included in that sum is $4 million slated for Cabela’s “museum elements.”

Cabela’s, a Nebraska-based, publicly traded outdoor sports outfitter, has museums at each of its 14 locations nationwide that serve to boost regional tourism.

Hooksett residents have a track record of welcoming new commercial growth, but the scope of this TIF plan – viewed by proponents as an opportunity to use the Exit 11 area as a major tourist destination – well exceeds even the largest of Hooksett’s current development areas.

In 1999, voters supported a $2.7 million plan for Hooksett’s first TIF district, off Exit 10. Since then, the district has brought in large retailers including Home Depot, Target and Kohl’s, and has returned about $1.7 million in tax revenue to the town’s general fund.

Michael Bergeron, business development manager for the New Hampshire Department of Resources and Economic Development, suggested Hooksett’s latest TIF proposal varies from other TIFs statewide.

“In most towns, there’s no guarantee of any kind from the developer,” he said. “What Cabela’s is doing is actually quite unique.”

Cabela’s – as it often does when partnering with a municipality – has offered to purchase and indemnify the $18 million dollar bond, to ensure that Hooksett taxpayers are protected for the life of the 20-year note.

DiBitetto stressed that the town council, and its “legal eagles” have pored over the proposal to eliminate any risk to taxpayers.

“The council has always been pretty conservative to ensure we’re not going out on a limb,” said DiBitetto.

Up to the voters
Despite such a guarantee, the plan still must withstand the scrutiny of Hooksett’s voters, who’ve witnessed unprecedented growth in recent decades.

“The biggest issue here is whether the people of Hooksett will have a better quality of life,” said Romps. “That is something they’ll have to consider.”

The deliberative session of Town Meeting is set for April 1, at 1 p.m., at Cawley Middle School. Voting day is May 9.