Chapter 8 - § 8.5 • PUBLIC IMPROVEMENT CORPORATIONS OR PUBLIC BUILDING AUTHORITIES

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 8.5 • PUBLIC IMPROVEMENT CORPORATIONS OR PUBLIC BUILDING AUTHORITIES

Unlike districts, public improvement corporations (also known as "PICs" or "public building authorities") are not units of government. Instead, they are nonprofit corporations formed at the request of municipalities or land developers for the purpose of financing improvements without the use of public debt.

When compared to many district mechanisms, a public improvement corporation is viewed as a much weaker mechanism for promoting infrastructure development, but one that involves significantly lower risk that development failures will affect the local government or its residents. Colorado Springs, in particular, has occasionally used public improvement corporations in lieu of special districts. As nonprofit corporations, PICs have no governmental powers and do not have the power to tax. The use of a nonprofit corporate entity to provide public infrastructure, however, provides some benefits to the developer in the form of limited liability and a potential for tax-exempt status for bonds. In addition, unlike a municipal or county improvement district, the use of a PIC to construct infrastructure can give the developer control of the borrowing entity.

Public improvement corporations generally finance their public improvements by the sale of tax-exempt bonds, and may repay those bonds either:

1) By use of a long-term lease of the public improvement built by the PIC to a public entity, using the lease payments to secure payments of the bonds;¹⁰¹
2) By placing a consensual lien on the land within their territory and then discharging the lien by payment of a fee collected upon sale of the liened property. Unlike a special district's perpetual lien, which is in the nature of a tax lien and has priority over all private liens, a public improvement corporation's consensual lien is subject to prior private mortgages, deeds of trust, and other encumbrances unless subordinated by consent of the prior lender; or
3) By collection of a "public improvement fee" as described below.

Public improvement corporations are not subject to the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (the TABOR Amendment, Colo. Const. art. X, § 20), and thus no election is required to approve their organization, financial structure, or bonds. The PIC can enter into multiple-year obligations merely by approval of its governing body.

PICs are...