Special Milford Town Meeting Will Decide TIF Tax Breaks

MILFORD, MA — A special Town Meeting coming up on Jan. 13 will decide if Milford will grant tax increment financing (TIF) deals to companies planning to expand in town.

Under a TIF, a property owner gets to pay reduced property taxes for a set period of time during a development project. TIFs are used widely across the state to stimulate development projects, including in Worcester and Framingham.

Rentschler Biopharma says it will spend $55 million to build a 24,000 square-foot building at 27 Maple St. The project would keep 85 jobs in Milford, and add 75 new ones, according to the company.

The 12-year Rentschler TIF would be worth about $1.2 million to the company. In the first year of the TIF, Rentschler would pay 90 percent of the total property tax due, and that would ratchet down to 15 percent by the twelfth year.

Franklin-based Interactions, which makes artificial intelligence computer programs, wants to spend $7 million to renovate a building at 31 Maple St. for its new corporate headquarters. The project would mean about 200 jobs relocating to Milford from Franklin, plus another 100 new jobs, according to the company.

The Interactions TIF would be worth about $232,000 in property tax savings over 10 years, plus another $529,000 in personal property tax savings over that same period.

There are four other articles on the special Town Meeting warrant: a new vacation schedule for town employees; a new contract with the Milford firefighters union; asking the Legislature for a liquor license for Rail Trail Flatbread Co.; and for another liquor license for a holding company associated with Rail Trail Flatbread.

You can read the full TIF agreements for Rentschler and Interactions on the Town Meeting website.