Dear Editor,
To the Taxpayers of Lee’s Summit, please ask the Lee’s Summit Mayoral and Council Member Candidates for a list of ALL Developers who have received an approved TIF, CID or TDD within the last 20 years. It may help you understand why PACs are formed to support political campaigns and certain business people financially back specific political candidates.
When these TIFs and CIDs are handed out so freely, it is our taxpayer’s MONEY! Which in turn puts a larger burden on First Responders. However, if you have a Mayor and Council Members that are willing to hand out our tax money to the Developers instead of our First Responders – this is where the City of Lee’s Summit ends up over a 20 year period! It needs to be balanced. The City Manager shouldn’t be running the show. Your elected officials should be making those decisions by asking the hard questions and representing the taxpayers.
Do your homework before the April 3rd Election! You might find this information interesting:
The TIF process arguably leads to favoritism for politically connected developers, implementing attorneys, economic development officials, and others involved in the processes.
In some cases, school districts within communities using TIF are experiencing larger increases in state aid than districts not in such communities. This may be creating an incentive for governments to “over-TIF,” consequently taking on riskier development projects. Local governments are under no obligation to recognize when TIF designation would adversely affect a school district’s financial condition, and consequently the quality of some schools can be compromised.
Normal inflationary increases in property values can be captured with districts in poorly written TIFs, representing money that would have gone into the public coffers even without the financed improvements.
Approval of districts can sometimes capture one entity’s future taxes without its official input, i.e. a school districts taxes will be frozen on action of a city.
Capturing the full tax increment and directing it to repay the development bonds ignores the fact that the incremental increase in property value likely requires an increase in the provision of public services, which will now have to be funded from elsewhere (often from subsidies from less economically thriving areas). For example, the use of tax increment financing to create a large residential development means that public services from schools to public safety will need to be expanded, yet if the full tax increment is captured to repay the development bonds, other money will have to be used.”
BEST OF LUCK Lee’s Summit!
Pam Hatcher
Broker – Owner
Integrity Group Real Estate
