An Act to require a vote to approve the creation of certain tax increment financing districts.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of South Dakota:

Section 1. That § 11-9-5 be AMENDED:

11-9-5. To establish create a district, the governing body must adopt a resolution that:

(1) Describes the boundaries of a the district with sufficient definiteness to identify with ordinary and reasonable certainty the territory included. The boundaries may not split a whole unit of property that is being used for a single purpose;

(2) Creates the district on Specifies a given date for the creation of a district;

(3) Includes a finding that the assessed value of the taxable property in the district plus the tax increment base of all other existing districts does not exceed ten percent of the total assessed value of all taxable property in the political subdivision; and

(4) Assigns a name to the district for identification purposes. The first district created in each political subdivision must be known as "Tax Increment Financing District Number One, City (or Town, or County) of __________." Each subsequently created district must be assigned the next consecutive number.

A resolution adopted under this section is subject to a referendum under the provisions of section 2 of this Act

Section 2. That a NEW SECTION be added to chapter 11-9:

If the estimated project costs of a proposed district are greater than fifteen million dollars, the governing body creating the district must call a special election to determine the question of the establishment of the district. Except as provided below, the election must be held on a Tuesday between forty-five and sixty days from the date on which the governing body adopted the resolution establishing the district.

If the resolution is adopted by the governing body within the ninety-day period prior to the political subdivision's regular election or a primary or general election and with sufficient time to comply with the subdivision's requirements for publishing notice of the election, the question must be submitted to the voters at that election.

A special election under this section must be held upon the same notice and conducted in the same manner as a regular election of the political subdivision.