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But Mike Groene comes from the Wild West.

The state senator from North Platte has seen tax-increment financing, or TIF, used as a bribe or to help people artificially raise the value of their land, he says.

"That is wrong," he told members of the Legislature's Urban Affairs Committee on Tuesday during hearings over two bills he sponsored this year, ²¹²Ô»åÌý, intended to clamp down on TIF.

Tax-increment financing allows developers to redirect property taxes on value they add to an area — using that money to help pay for improvements that have some public benefit rather than as taxes to the city, school district and other entities. The money comes from a bond that is repaid over 15 years.

Under state law, TIF projects must meet a test saying they would not be built "but for" the help of the city. The money is also supposed to be used for redevelopment, not new development.

Groene wants TIF to be subject to tighter restrictions and more oversight, arguing there's little to prevent cities from abusing the tool to essentially give developers a 15-year break on their property taxes with minimal benefit to the public.

"There is nobody to say no," he said. "We need to tighten it up."

Another western Nebraska senator, Al Davis of Hyannis, has also introduced a bill () to provide greater oversight of the process.

City officials, business groups and developers from across the state lined up against the proposals during Tuesday's hearing, defending TIF as an invaluable tool that has pumped billions of dollars into Nebraska communities. 

They argue the redevelopment process is largely self-regulating, with at least two public hearings on each proposal before it can be approved, followed by local audits and community oversight once a project begins.

"We do not need a new state office to oversee the use of TIF," Lincoln Mayor Chris Beutler told the committee.

Davis' bill would create a new division within the state Auditor's Office, adding two employees to review TIF projects across the state. After a one-year commitment of about $116,000 from the state's general fund, the Auditor's Office would pay for the jobs itself through fees. 

Groene's oversight bill would give similar authority to the state Department of Revenue. The agency wouldn't collect fees, however, so the cost of two new employees there would have to come from the state's general fund, according to the Legislative Fiscal Office.

Under Davis' bill, if a redevelopment project isn't working or a recipient of tax-increment financing isn't meeting requirements, it could be ordered to pay back property taxes. 

Groene's bill would bar local governments from using TIF if they are found to be violating the law.

"If you're using the law correctly, you have nothing to fear," he said. Lincoln does "a very good job."

But some cities have used TIF to play favorites between adjacent properties, or have funneled money from one project's tax-increment financing toward other work that doesn't qualify, Groene said. 

He complained to state authorities 12 years ago about a project he says misused TIF, a Menards in North Platte, and was told there was nothing anyone at the state level could do except change the law.

"Took me 12 years but now I'm here," he said Tuesday.

David Landis, Lincoln's urban development director, called cases like the one in North Platte self-correcting bumps in the road.

And he took issue with Groene's other bill, which would narrow the potential uses of tax-increment financing. 

Groene says the change would bring TIF back to its origins in 1978, when Nebraska voters first amended the state's constitution to allow for the use of tax-increment financing.

A whole list of Lincoln projects — stretching from the Antelope Valley area on one side of downtown to the Toolhouse building on the other — would have violated Groene's proposed limitations, said Landis, who was a state senator when TIF was created.

"This bill would stop our ability to do another project like this," he said.

The building at 1421 P St. in Lincoln had been for sale and passed up by other developers since the 1990s before Tru-Built Construction secured tax-increment financing to transform it into apartments for students and young professionals, said Bo Jones, Tru-Built's president.

Before that, the building mostly housed criminals and sex offenders, and was "basically a flophouse," he said.

"If it were not for TIF, this project would not have happened."