Saturday, June 26, 2010

Wauwatosa Taxpayers, Through TIF, Will Finance Part of UWM's Engineering/Innovation Campus

I'll be they thought it was a UWM/Private Sector plan.


Not.

$11..5 million in proposed TIF funds from the taxpayers to a developer for infrastructure - - to be taken up by the Tosa Plan Commission Monday, July 12, at 7:00 p.m. at City Hall.

Some readers of the blog cannot see the public notice I copied out. In part, a description from Wauwatosa.now reads:

A TIF district has been proposed for the Co. Grounds where the UW-Milwaukee is creating a engineering and applied science campus at the NE corner of hwy 45 and Watertown Plank Road. The university buildings will be tax exempt. However, a residential development and private research buildings and laboratories are expected to generate tax revenue.

The land is largely unimproved lacking infrastructure such as access road, utility connections and storm water facilities that are needed to make it useful development, UWM officials have said. There also will be costs associated with renovating the historic Eschweiler building, a stipulation of the land sale agreement. Developers estimate the site's potential value at $75 million. A business accelerator and private research facilities are expected to create local jobs. A Joint review board representing the various taxing entities, including the city and Milw Co will meet within the next two weeks to decide whether to allow a TIF. If approved, some of the TIF dollars would be used to cover the local contribution required to get a federal $ 4.2 million grant to construct the accelerator.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is just a bad idea all around.

This should just die.

jpk said...

How this land meets the statutory "blight" definition to create a TIF is beyond me.

Tosa taxpayers beware, too much TIF can be a bad thing. Why? See this Public Policy Forum report:

http://www.publicpolicyforum.org/pdfs/2009TIFBrief.pdf

Wisconsin needs TIF reform.

James Rowen said...

To JPK: See Pabst Farms.