<email obscured> writes:
> ONE PROPERTY GETS A TIF DISTRICT; OTHERS PAY THE PRICE. TIF Districts
> are a tool that is meant to spur new development that wouldn't have
> happened without the help
Here we go on the great TIF debate again. To bring everyone up to speed TIF
means Tax Increment Financing. The city loans to the private developer money
and the developer pays the city back with the "Incremental" difference between
the taxes they are currently paying and the taxes they will pay after the
improvement. So, if building A is paying $60,000 in taxes $20,000 to the
county,
$20,000 to the school district and $20,000 to the city and they get a million
dollar TIF loan to do improvements and the building would then generate
$120,000 in taxes they pay it $20,000 to the county, $20,000 to the school
district
and $80,000 to the city ($60,000) to pay back the loan. With me, the county
and the school district and the city still get the money they were getting
before. They just don't get the new taxes generated by the improvements.
To do a TIF district in Minnesota you are supposed to pass the "but for"
test. But for the city giving the TIF loan the project wouldn't happen.
Anyone
can argue if or not development would occur but the suburbs have corn fields
they can hand over and cities have blocks of built land that cost a fortune to
acquire. (If the GOP has their way the blighted land will cost more when they
take the city's power of eminent domain away)
So, the real question on TIF districts is, does development have positive
spill over affect? Are your property values going up in Saint Paul
neighborhoods
because downtown isn't dead yet? Had the City not done the downtown and
riverfront TIF districts and spent money on the Ordway, the Children's Museum,
the
Science Museum, the History Theater, The Fitzgerald, Landmark Center, the
Flood Wall, Lawson, Minnesota Mutual and so on... and you could shoot an even
bigger cannon through downtown Saint Paul would it have adversely effected your
property values?
Your elected officials over the last thirty years have guessed yes. Under
George, Jim, Norm and Randy they have all bet that if you did nothing things
would be worse.
JMONTOMEPPOF
Chuck Repke
Ward 2