Dubuque sits on $27M in unspent Tif cash as council prepares $22.25M bond vote

REAL DUBUQUE NEWS (RDN) DUBUQUE, Iowa — The City of Dubuque collected a record $17.5 million in tax increment financing revenue last fiscal year and ended the year with nearly $27 million in unspent TIF cash, according to state data analyzed by Real Dubuque News. On Monday night, the city council holds a public hearing on borrowing up to $22.25 million in new general obligation bonds. The figures come from the Iowa Data Hub's urban renewal financial summary, which tracks every TIF district in the state by fiscal year. RDN pulled the full dataset (13,585 rows, FY2012 through FY2025) and filtered it to Dubuque's 26 urban renewal areas. What the numbers show: FY2025 TIF revenue hit $17,551,607, up 36 percent from $12.9 million in FY2024, the largest single-year jump in the 14-year series. Cash left unspent at year end totaled $26,991,144, nearly double the $16.7 million balance a year earlier. Rebates paid to developers in FY2025 were $3,764,346, with another $4,571,096 in non-rebate project spending. Since FY2012, the city has collected $159.9 million in TIF revenue, rebated $44.4 million of it to developers, and spent $123.6 million on projects and debt. Two areas dominate. The Greater Downtown Urban Renewal Area, covering downtown, the Millwork District and the Port, generated $11.0 million, about 63 percent of the city's total. The Dubuque Industrial Center generated $3.7 million, and exactly half of that, $1.85 million, went straight back to developers as tax rebates. Dubuque County, meanwhile, has exited the TIF game entirely: its two urban renewal areas reported zero revenue in FY2024 and FY2025. The state's own annual urban renewal report for Dubuque corroborates the scale: $99.8 million in TIF debt outstanding and a $28.1 million cash balance as of June 30, 2025. What TIF money can and cannot do: this is not a "spend this instead" story, and it would be dishonest to frame it that way. Under Iowa Code Chapter 403, tax increment revenue is legally restricted. It can only be spent on urban renewal projects inside the urban renewal area that generated it: public infrastructure, street and utility improvements, paying off TIF-backed debt, and rebates to developers under approved development agreements. It cannot be moved into the city's general fund. It cannot pay for police, parks operations, or general city payroll. And it cannot service general obligation bonds issued for purposes outside a TIF area. That restriction is exactly why the balance matters. The $27 million is not a rainy-day fund the council can tap for anything. It is $27 million in property tax dollars, diverted from the normal levies that fund the city, county and schools, now sitting unspent inside TIF accounts while the city prepares to ask taxpayers to back $22.25 million in new general obligation debt. Questions for the council, Monday night. The bond hearing is the right venue for these, and they deserve on-the-record answers. First: the unspent TIF balance nearly doubled in one year, from $16.7 million to $27 million. What is the plan for that money, and on what timeline? If projects are not ready, why did the increment keep flowing at a record pace? Second: in the Industrial Center, half the tax increment, $1.85 million last year, flows straight back to developers as rebates. What is the city's documented return on those rebate agreements: jobs created, valuation added, and whether the development would have happened without the rebate? Third: between $99.8 million in outstanding TIF debt and the proposed $22.25 million in new general obligation bonds, what is the total long-term debt obligation Dubuque taxpayers are carrying? How much of the TIF debt is backed by future increment versus the city's full faith and credit? Fourth: two urban renewal areas, Greater Downtown and the Industrial Center, now account for 84 percent of all TIF revenue. Is the city over-concentrated, and what happens to the TIF program's finances if development in those two areas stalls? The bond hearing is Monday, Nov. 2, at 6:30 p.m. at the Historic Federal Building, 350 W. 6th St. Photo: Dubuque City Hall. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.