ssAs we told you would happen a couple months back, state law has been changed to allow localities to use tax increment financing to build schools, community college facilities, and parks. This easily ranks as one of the biggest changes spit out of Raleigh this session, but it continues to fly under the radar.

Once word gets out — and the lenders and deal-makers will do that — billions of dollars in new government debt will be issued across the state in short order. The new law does away with the need to create a special municipal TIF district, making it even easier to put a TIF deal together.

In Mecklenburg, however, we are already racing to use TIF capacity in the Northern part of the county and in the towns to build CATS’ $300 million North line commuter rail. Maybe that is why everyone so hush-hush about a brand new way to build schools and parks — we’re using the money to build trains instead.

Then again, it could be that few folks understand what lawmakers did. Certainly that could be true of CMS, which does not exactly adapt to change well.

Still, just three years after Amendment One legalized TIF debt in North Carolina as an “economic development tool” the limitations on its use have been largely stripped away. For example, counties can now turn to TIF to fund school construction without the need for voter approval of a school bond.

Now do you get the picture? Thought so.