LOUISVILLE, Ky. — For decades now, Kentucky’s elected leaders have talked about helping Louisville’s West End, one of the more economically-depressed parts of the commonwealth.

Sen. Gerald Neal (D-Louisville) has been in the Senate for more than 30 years and he said it's always been a tricky topic.

“And the question was how do we stabilize the community and how do we develop economic development dynamics that will be not only beneficial, but beneficial to those who live there now?” Neal said.

With House Bill 321, supporters feel they have a solution.

The bill creates a tax increment financing (TIF) district to help fund efforts to make the area better in nine West End neighborhoods: Parkland, Shawnee, Park Duvalle, Russell, Portland, California, Chickasaw, Park Hill, and Algonquin.

“Underneath all of this, you’re talking about money; you’re talking about how do you get the funding?” Neal said. “People have historically had ideas about how to address issues in the west, but the fact of the matter is almost all of them would fail due to lack of funding.”

The bill was one of several passed Tuesday night on the last night of session. Rep. Pamela Stevenson (D-Louisville), one of the biggest supporters in the House, grew up in the West End.

“It was just a vibrant community where families could thrive, and now it’s just a shell of itself,” Stevenson said.

Through various funding sources, both public and private, the bill would generate at least $30 million for the area to start out with.

“It’s not going to fix everything, but it’s a good start,” Stevenson said. “It will get us what we need. I don’t know where else we can get $30 million worth of infusion of capital into West Louisville. I just don’t know.”

And the longer plan over the next three decades is with the TIF district.  

A TIF district works by collecting some tax revenue inside the district and then saving that in a special fund for projects within the district. It uses tax data from the year the district was enacted to establish revenue that will continue flowing. 

A board made up of community members would choose where funding goes. It also aims to prevent gentrification by giving some property tax relief to people who already live there.

“This bill — bills — does not have all the answers,” Neal said. “That’s why the planning, that’s why the expertise, has to go into this to enable it to be done right. It has to be done right.”

Part of House Bill 556, which spends hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal American Rescue Plan Act, includes a funding mechanism to help the TIF proposal.

The TIF district was originally filed under different and separate bills in the House and Senate, but it was pushed through as a committee substitute to an unrelated bill on the last day of session. The legislative tactic allowed lawmakers to pass it through both chambers in one day, which Neal noted is common at the end of legislative sessions and was used to pass several other proposals during the last two days of this year.

During the floor debate late Tuesday night — the vote came a half-hour before lawmakers had to adjourn for the year — some lawmakers expressed concern about TIF districts, which don’t always live up to expectations and have been a source of corruption in the past.

Neal believes with the safeguards put in place with this proposal, things will be different in Louisville’s West End.

Gov. Andy Beshear said he plans to take a few days off for Easter before deciding what he plans to do with the series of bills lawmakers sent him Tuesday, including House Bill 321.

While he didn’t commit to signing the bill when Spectrum News asked him Wednesday, he said he supports the idea of investing in West Louisville.

“It’s a significant piece of legislation because it tries to invest in ways that create wealth within the community, with a lot of community input and control,” Beshear said. “And I think those are the right motivations.”