RACINE - SC Johnson has reached out to Racine Mayor John Dickert to see if he wants the company to go through the process for an Uptown tax incremental financing district (TIF) and donation again.

"We indicated that it saddens us that there's been all of this sort of misunderstanding about what happened on the TIF," SCJ spokeswoman Kelly Semrau said. "We encouraged him, if he wanted to, to take it back through the entire process."

Semrau said the misunderstanding arose in media reports. They indicated an alleged quid pro quo arrangement between the company and the city - essentially saying the company's $500,000 Uptown donation was an arrangement made with then-Mayor Gary Becker in exchange for his support for a property tax exemption.

Becker's attorney, Patrick Cafferty, declined to comment.

As of this year, SCJ will no longer pay property taxes on its Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, and it is examining the possibility of getting a tax exemption for Fortaleza Hall, which is currently under construction. Gov. Jim Doyle issued an executive order last year that made the tax exemptions possible under state statutes.

SCJ CEO Fisk Johnson and Becker did meet for lunch in July 2007, Semrau said, and in that meeting Becker spoke about his vision for the Uptown project and Johnson said the company was applying for the state tax exemption.

"There was discussion between the two of them, but there was nothing that was anything but an exchange of information," Semrau said. "The governor makes the ruling on the state tax exemption, and the city makes the ruling on the TIF."

City Development Director Brian O'Connell also said the city does not have authority over the exemption.

"It's not in the city's place to make that award of the exemption. We don't do the assessment," he said. "My inclination is to believe they were on parallel and complimentary tracks - it was not a deal because what was Johnson to gain, there was nothing they needed from the city."

Semrau said the TIF approval process involved multiple meetings of city committees.

"It's been a very public process, there's never been any effort by SC Johnson to not have this be discussed in the community," she said. "There's no back room on this."

Dickert said he will not make a decision until he has been completely briefed on the situation.

"I think people obviously deserve to know what's going on," he said. "(SCJ has) been very open to work with us and everyone else on the situation."

Details of the plan for the donation have been finalized, O'Connell said, and all SCJ has left to do is send the check.

Semrau said the donation to Uptown from the company - which has given about $10 million in charitable contributions in Racine and Kenosha counties this fiscal year - is part of their role as a corporate citizen.

"We absolutely are good, paying tax citizens of the community, as well as giving a tremendous amount locally in product donations and charitable contributions," Semrau said. "We believe in giving, even in years where maybe businesses have a tougher time, we don't pull back. We still continue to give as much as we possibly can, because we want the community that we live in, that we work in, to be as vibrant as possible."

The TIF district

Tax incremental financing allows municipalities to funnel tax money into improvements within a geographic district - in this case the Uptown area - for a period of time. Instead of city and county coffers and technical college support, the tax dollars from the SCJ buildings will be used for 14 years to pay for infrastructure needs within the district.

In this case, at least some of the money will be used to invest in Uptown properties, raise their values and make them more attractive in the real estate market, said City Development Director Brian O'Connell.

"The big investment that Johnson is making in Project Honor is something that we saw as an economic engine to help power the investment in Uptown," O'Connell said.

For a new employee community building that is part of Project Honor, a construction project on the company's Howe Street campus, SCJ will pay an estimated $166,942 in incremental taxes to the Uptown TIF district every year for 14 years, according to SCJ spokeswoman Kelly Semrau.

"Uptown is blighted, near our campus. Uptown is the gateway into Downtown for visitors or other companies that might want to come and put businesses in the city," she said. "As you enter Downtown and have it look as nice and be as vibrant as possible is something that SC Johnson is very interested in."

The company's $500,000 donation will go toward a range of Uptown initiatives, O'Connell said, including repairing deteriorating buildings. One project right now is to restore the façade of the building at 1418 Washington Ave., he said.

"It's important to know that Johnson thinks it's important, it's a real tangible sign of their support for the area," O'Connell said.

The TIF money will be used for similar projects, he said.