1.    At any time after the governing body of a municipality has approved a development or renewal plan for any development or renewal area and has filed that plan with the department of commerce division of community services, it may request the county auditor and treasurer to compute, certify, and remit tax increments resulting from the development or renewal of the area in accordance with the plan and any modifications thereof, and the county auditor and treasurer shall do so in accordance with this section.

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a.    For a tax increment district established before July 1, 2011, the base year for tax increments computed for a development or renewal area under this section or section 40-58-20.1 may not be used for more than twenty-five taxable years without the governing body of the municipality establishing a new base year using taxable values, established as of February first of the following year, which are not more than fifteen years old. Regardless of length of the initial district, the new base year may be used to compute tax increments for up to an additional fifteen years after which time the tax increment district must be closed, except that the original base year for tax increments pledged for an indebtedness incurred before July 1, 2011, may continue until the indebtedness is paid.

b.    For a tax increment district established after July 1, 2011, the base year for tax increments computed for a development or renewal area under this section or section 40-58-20.1 may not be used for more than twenty-five taxable years without the governing body of the municipality establishing a new base year using taxable values, established as of February first of the following year, which are not more than fifteen years old. The new base year may be used to compute tax increments for up to an additional five years after which time the tax increment district must be closed.

2.    The auditor shall compute and certify the original taxable value of each lot and parcel of real estate in the area, as last assessed and equalized before the date of the request, including the taxable value of any lot or parcel previously acquired by the municipality or its urban renewal agency, as last assessed and equalized before it was acquired. However, any real property acquired by the city or the city’s urban renewal agency prior to July 1, 1973, or more than five years prior to the approval of a development or renewal plan for any development or renewal area, whichever is later, is deemed to have an original taxable value of zero and the county auditor shall so certify.

3.    In each subsequent year, the auditor shall compute and certify the net amount by which the original taxable value of all lots and parcels of real estate in the area, as then assessed and equalized, including real estate then held by the municipality or urban renewal agency valued at zero, has increased or decreased in comparison with the original taxable value of all such real estate. The net amount of the increase or decrease is referred to in this section as the incremental value or the lost value for that year, as the case may be.

4.    In any year when there is an incremental value, the auditor shall exclude it from the taxable value upon which the auditor computes the mill rates of taxes levied in that year by the state, the county, the municipality, the school district, and every other political subdivision having power to tax the development or renewal area, until the cost of development or renewal of the area has been reimbursed in accordance with this section. However, the auditor shall extend the aggregate mill rate of those taxes against the incremental value as well as the original taxable value, and the amount of     taxes received from that extension against the incremental value is referred to in this section as the tax increment for that year.

5.    In any year when there is a lost value, the auditor shall compute and certify the amounts of taxes which would have resulted from the extension against the lost value of the mill rate of taxes levied that year by the state and each political subdivision having power to tax the development or renewal area. The amounts so computed are referred to in this section as the tax losses for that year.

6.    The county auditor shall segregate all tax increments from the development or renewal area in a special fund, crediting to the fund, in each year when there is an incremental value, that proportion of each collection of taxes on real estate within the area which the incremental value bears to the total taxable value in that year.

7.    Upon receipt of any tax increments in the fund, the county treasurer, at the times when the county treasurer distributes collected taxes to the state and to each political subdivision for which a tax loss has previously been recorded, shall also remit to each of them from the tax increment fund an amount proportionate to the amount of that tax loss, until all those tax losses have been reimbursed. Thereafter, at the time of each distribution, the county treasurer shall remit the entire balance then on hand in the fund to the municipality, until the cost of development or renewal of the area has been reimbursed to the municipality as provided in this section.

8.    The cost of development or renewal subject to reimbursement from the tax increment fund for each development or renewal area must include all expenditures incident to carrying out the development or renewal plan for the area and any modifications thereof, not otherwise reimbursed in one of the ways referred to below, including all expenses of the clearance, development, redevelopment, rehabilitation, and conservation of the area, and all interest and redemption premiums paid on bonds, notes, or other obligations issued by the municipality or urban renewal agency to provide funds for payment of those expenses, subject to section 40-58-20.1 for the purpose of determining eligible cost of development of industrial or commercial property. From the total cost to be reimbursed there must be deducted, except as provided below, all amounts received from the federal government or others, and all special assessments, revenues, and other receipts except property taxes, which are actually collected and applied to the payment of the cost or the bonds, notes, or other obligations, at the times when those payments are due. However, if the proceeds of tax increments or of bonds, notes, or other obligations are loaned to finance part or all of the cost of a project comprising the restoration, reconstruction, and improvement of a privately owned state historical site situated within the development or renewal area or any buildings or structures thereon, as contemplated in section 55-10-08, or of a property listed in the national register of historic places, as contemplated in section 55-10-11, in consideration of the grant to the city of a historic easement with respect thereto, repayments of the loan may not be deducted from the cost of development or renewal subject to reimbursement.

9.    The tax increments from any development or renewal area may be appropriated by the governing body of the municipality for the payment of any general obligation bonds, special improvement warrants, or refunding improvement bonds issued by the municipality to provide funds for payment of the cost of development or renewal, together with interest and redemption premiums thereon, other than that portion, if any, of such principal, interest, and redemption premiums which can be paid when due from collections of special assessments, revenues, or other funds, excluding property taxes, which are pledged for the payment thereof. When special improvement warrants or refunding improvement bonds are issued to pay the cost of public improvements of special benefit to properties within the development or renewal area, the governing body may cause those special benefits to be computed, together with the cost properly assessable against those properties, and may appropriate the tax increments from the area to the payment of that cost, in lieu of levying special assessments upon the property. In this event, the amount so appropriated, divided into the same number of installments as the special assessments and with interest at the    same rate on the declining balance thereof, is deemed a part of the special assessments appropriated for payment of the cost, within the meaning of section 40-26-08.

10.    When the cost of development or renewal of any development or renewal area has been fully paid and all bonds, notes, or other obligations issued by the municipality to pay that cost have been retired, or funds sufficient for the retirement thereof have been received by the municipality, the governing body shall cause this to be reported to the county auditor, who shall thereafter compute the mill rates of all taxes upon the total taxable value of the development or renewal area. Any balance then on hand in the tax increment fund must be distributed by the county treasurer to the state and all political subdivisions having power to tax property in the area, in amounts proportionate to the amounts of the tax losses previously reimbursed to them.

11.    As an alternative to the sale of bonds to be amortized with tax increments as provided in this section, the governing body of a municipality may, in its discretion, grant a total or partial tax exemption for the project in order to provide assistance to a project developer in a development or renewal area, pursuant to agreement with the municipality. However, if a developer of a development or renewal project receives a tax exemption for that project pursuant to this subsection, that project developer may not receive a tax exemption for that project under section 40-57.1-03, 40-57.1-04, 40-57.1-04.1, or 40-57.1-04.3. The amount of annual tax exemption under this subsection is limited to the tax increment as defined in this section as it applies to the development or renewal project and may extend for a period not to exceed fifteen years. In determining the total amount of the tax exemption to be authorized, the municipality shall give due consideration to the same elements as are involved in the sale of bonds to be amortized by tax increments. The amount to be reimbursed, by tax exemption, to the project developer must be all or a portion of eligible public costs which have been paid by the project developer, plus interest on those costs at a rate not to exceed ten percent per annum. The amount of tax exemption must be an amount sufficient to reimburse the project operator for those eligible costs, amortized pursuant to the agreement between the project developer and the municipality.

12.    The governing body of a municipality with an active tax increment financing district may at any time identify funds on hand that are in excess of the costs it determines necessary to complete the activities included in the last approved urban renewal plan for that district. The governing body shall cause the identified surplus to be transferred to the county treasurer to be distributed to the state and all political subdivisions having power to tax property in the area, in amounts proportionate to the most recent five-year average of the property tax levy within the district.