Tag: TIF districts
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Testimony Opposing Tax Increment Financing for the Ken Mar Redevelopment Project
Testimony of John Todd, opposing the formation of a tax increment financing (TIF) district, delivered to the Wichita City Council on August 12, 2008. Mr. Mayor and members of the Wichita City Council, thank you for allowing me this opportunity to speak before you today. My name is John Todd. I stand before you today…
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Reverend Kevass Harding’s Wichita TIF District: A Bad Deal in Several Ways
Remarks to be delivered to the Wichita City Council on August 12, 2008. There’s several reasons why this council should not approve this request for TIF financing. Material in today’s agenda packet doesn’t specify an amount, but past materials indicated that the project was $2.5 million short of the total needed for the project. Now…
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Questions Wichita Reverend Kevass Harding Will Not Answer
The Reverend Kevass Harding, a member of the board of USD 259, the Wichita public school district, is also a real estate developer (New life for Ken-Mar Shopping Center: Harding plans to revitalize 13th Street mall, March 14, 2008 Wichita Business Journal). The problem is that Harding plans to ask the taxpayers of the City…
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Testimony Opposing Expansion of the Wichita City South Redevelopment Tax Increment Financing District
From John Todd. Mr. Mayor and members of the Wichita City Council, thank you for allowing me this opportunity to speak before you today. My name is John Todd. I stand before you today as a citizen in opposition to the Expansion of the City South Redevelopment District (Tax Increment Financing) (Districts I & VI).…
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Downtown Wichita Arena TIF District
Remarks to Wichita City Council, August 5, 2008. When I’ve been talking to people in Wichita, I find there is great confusion about the way that TIF districts work. This confusion serves to obfuscate what really happens with TIF districts: the TIF developers get to use their own property taxes to pay for things that…
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Do Wichita TIF Districts Create Value?
A recent Wichita Eagle article City tax districts aren’t breaking even reports on some of the problems with tax increment financing, or TIF, districts in Wichita: One promise of TIFs was that revitalizing certain areas — such as Old Town and the East Bank — would boost property values throughout downtown. In the past four…
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What Wichita Vice Mayor Sharon Fearey Doesn’t Understand
In a Wichita Eagle article City tax districts aren’t breaking even we find this whopper of a quote: Vice Mayor Sharon Fearey likened the situation to what would happen if she put a swimming pool in her yard. “I’d probably actually lose money, but for the years that I’ve had that swimming pool, I’d have…
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Wichita City Council’s misunderstanding of tax increment financing
On July 8, 2008 I testified at a public hearing at a Wichita city council meeting. Afterward, a council member told me that I had a “glaring error” in my arguments. I won’t identify this member in order to avoid embarrassing the member. The minutes of the meeting don’t identify the member who said this,…
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Reverend Kevass Harding and His Wichita TIF District
Remarks to be delivered to the Wichita City Council, July 8, 2008. Mr. Mayor and members of the council, today I will not discuss the desirability of tax increment financing (TIF) districts in general, or the merits of this one in particular. I’ll leave that for the August 12 public hearing. Instead, I wish to…
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In Wichita, is Economic Development Proven Public Policy?
In a statement read by Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer and released on the city’s website at Mayor Brewer Warren Theatre [sic] Statement, the mayor states “Economic development is proven public policy.” The word “proven” was used several other times in the statement. (I don’t know who wrote the title to the statement, but it combines…
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Wichita and the Old Town Warren Theater Loan
Remarks to be delivered to the Wichita City Council, July 1, 2008. Mr. Mayor and members of the Council, we are potentially beginning a journey down a road where there are two classes of businesses in Wichita. There are business owners who seek to earn their profit through market entrepreneurship, that is, by meeting the…
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Warren Old Town Wichita Theater: Good Money After Bad?
This letter is from my friend Darrell Leffew. Not everyone seems to understand the folly of throwing good money after bad. “Taxpayers are already on the hook” is Wichita city council member Jeff Longwell’s opinion as expressed in a Wichita Eagle article. Mr. Longwell, I realize you weren’t a member of the council when we…