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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCorrespondence ;:7:artmol Counpilisf,;", ;ss Phii Sguler. have lived at 1'315 Lawreiica Road in C e 1=r1 preiat.,.* my mk,E, by 5±-3flrog we sv.,e1Ti be.p. putting the cart before th hOlSie With th meetin, ifile are TF fr 4 tiglacIpinp.nt th, haF, TWA yet bear apprt. by thr City C;(, if this deveioprnent iS not approqed than this meeting is a wasta, of time, is it not. Jns yo;.3 ;ii thra do not. I won' :VOL; Zi7G. assuming that the apT.. is a forecom? COnChrSiOa. It my understanding that the TIF program was instituted by the Federal Government to alleviate the problems of inner city blight. The fact t TIF ie not,i7 used by areas that one could hardly call blighted is, in my opon, while iegal, definitely not ethical. I would compare this sort of TiF to the dangerous he medication Amiodorone. It will keep you alive in the short run while killing your insides in the log run. A number e open questions: 1. What ta:Aes are generated by Mohawk Hilis apartments today? 2. How many years before the city s.ses te:_c re.venue (thaz it can keep and use for city uses) fr Grarnev;zy 3, Over the years what will be the net ices to Carmel in taxes? 4. Who w pay 'c,r the city Sar.4CGS to Gramercy poiice, ambulance, schools, fire !department atz., while. Carmel is waiting lbw Grafrrier to turn a pr©fit.? 5 I belil,tve limas mentioned that the s.shools would hot be ]Tnr.r..,ived tr TlF. As the schools are supported try property ta:tes, please V.Iplain to rrie how this w ot elf act them. Will zhe voperty owners, residential and commercial in Gramercy te paying their fair share c tames to support cw schools? a)1,- the :6=10 thatls given to Gramercy would ordinariiy be going 711(:) the general fund. This is a lot of money that ;let belongs to the city i.e.. the ta:ipayersihat could be used for City pi 7AR i2 Ta t riZnCing 1C iii c.171..a E.)arnlie1 c Graw. www.reason.corn ;Auch of what foliows is paraphrasing Mr. Mc Graw. A Crummy Way to Treat Taxpaying Citizens: 7 Although politicians portray TIFs as a great way to boost the local economy, there are hidden costs they don't want taxpayers to know about. Cites generally assume they are not really giving anything up because the forgone tax revenue would not have been available in the absence of the development generated by the TIF. That assumption is often wrong. Road and sewers and schools are public costs that come from growth. Unless spending is cut--and if a TIF really does generate economic growth, spending is likely to rise, as the local population grows--the burden of paying for these services will be shifted to other taxpayers. Adding insult to injury, those taxpayers may include small businesses facing competition from well-connected chains that enjoy TIF-related tax breaks. In effect, a TIF subsidizes big businesses at the expense of less politically influential competitors and ordinary citizens. But what is worse, and not talked about too much, is the shift of taxes being paid from wealthy corporations to small businesses and regular people, yuu UWH d. U! JU 1U U 1 i itaCI yvu *L43) J1jHI Clil yt.via/ c.4 as,/ Li 1 I...7 giving tax 'breaks to Buckingham Properties that could put you out of business, The rest of us pay taxes for normal services like public safety, building inspections, and street maintenance, and those services come out of the general fund. And as the cost of services goes up, and the money from the general fund is given to these businesses through a TIF, the tax burden gets shifted to the regular citizens who don't have the same political clout. It's a crummy way to treat your taxpaying, law- abiding citizens Almost no one has examined how TIFs succeed or fail over the long term. Local politicians are touting TIFs as a way to promote development, promising no new taxes, and then setting them up without looking at potential side effects Typically, big corporations come to small cities towing consultants who trot out rosy numbers, and the politicians see a future that may NOT materialize in five or ten years. The big buzzwords are economic development. The local governments see a vacant space and see something they like that some company might bring in. But no one thinks about what the costs might be.... They are giving away the store to get a store." Local officials usually do not consider how much growth might occur without a TIF. in 2002 the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group (NCBG), a coalition of 200 Chicago organizations that studies local public investment, looked at 36 of the city's TIF districts and found that property values were rising in all of them during the five years before they were designated as TiFs. The NCBG projected that the city of Chicago would capture $1.6 billion in second-stream property tax revenue—used to pay off the bonds that subsidized private businesses—over the 23-year life spans of these TIF districts. But it also found that $1.3 billion of that revenue would have been raised anyway, assuming the areas continued growing at their pre-TIF rates. The Chkage iiJ7pcirtant. "rile city invested $1.6. bon 'riFs, ever, though $1.3 hilliron in econornic development would have occurred anywmy. They invested 31.6 billion for $300 million in revenue growth. The upshot is that TIFs are diverting tax rnoney that otherwise would have been used for government services. The NCBG study found, for instance, that the 36 TIF districts would cost Chicago public schools $632 million (based on development that would have occurred anyway) in property tax revenue, because the property tax rates are frozen for schools as well. The cost of teaching the new students will be borne by property owners outside the TIF districts. Men all is said and done, granting this TIF to Buckingham Properties a private, for profit company is gambling with the taxpayer's money. Thank you, Phil Squier 1315 Lawrence Road, Carmel, IN 46033. (resident and tax payer since May 1971)