Tax Increment Financing. A city designates a geographic zone and all property tax money collected in that zone above a certain baseline amount goes into an account that is separate from the city budget account. The city then spends that money on development as they so choose. Some places allow it and some don't. Some places abuse it and some don't. But in general you can expect TIF money to be given directly to a developer to encourage them to build something within that zone.
One of the big problems is that that extra money is diverted away from the city budget for 20-30 years. The area I live in used to be inside a TIF (it expired). During that time, only about 10% of my property tax money went to the city. We had overcrowded schools getting 10% of the money they normally would have received. The library got 10% of the money it normally would have. Some of that TIF money went to build a basketball stadium. In a final gesture of goodwill (I guess), when the TIF expired they spent the final ~$40 million in the TIF account on an elementary school.
