Milwaukee Northwest Side Land Deal Is Proper TIF Use

I posted an interesting paper yesterday by a UW-M grad student and Public Policy Forum Fellow about how tax incremental financing is being used and abused in southeastern Wisconsin.

Too much of the specialized borrowing authority is being sopped up in upscale suburbs, like Oconomowoc, where TIF dollars are not being spent on blighted land (e.g., Pabst Farms) - - with negative consequences in the form of job and capital migration away from genuinely-underdeveloped property in Milwaukee.

On the other hand, word comes today that the City of Milwaukee has finally made a deal to acquire and redevelop the virtually-dormant former Tower Automotive site on the city's low-income near North side.

After the property's acquisition, a TIF district will be created around the 84-acre parcel, with increased tax collections on neighboring sites and the Tower property itself resulting from new public investment being used to pay back the TIF/redevelopment lending.

That is precisely what TIF was intended to do, and where it was supposed to work - - in cities, and in low-income areas, and certainly on blighted property - - capturing the TIF-generated tax base growth and creating jobs.

So kudos to the city and the property owners - - working out the deal was a long slog to be sure, and certainly there will be an extended developmental timeline, too, because the property needs much amelioration - - but in a city that is land-locked by law and unable to expand through annexation, this sort of reinvestment through stragetic use of TIF is beyond crucial for the city's economic success.