Wauwatosa taxpayers get to hear the first presentation tonight on how much taxpayer-supported lending and property tax investment are being sought to help UWM and the private sector build a new engineering school and business innovation center on a primo piece of regional open space - - the Milwaukee County Grounds.
The tax incremental financing (TIF) district - - an arrangement wherein a municipality lends a project some money, and the loans are paid off through the increased tax collections on the project - - will be laid out at a meeting of the Wauwatosa Plan Commission at 7 p.m. in Wauwatosa City Hall.
Some details.
A TIF sounds like an easy money/win-win for everyone: developers and project managers get their infrastructure built with cheaply-borrowed municipal loans - - but the losers, at least until the loans are paid off - - are the taxing entities and services that rely on Wauwatosa property tax collections - - like schools and others that do not get their share of the increment.
They get their benefit from the increased taxes on the project when the TIF district is retired - - normally, in say, 15-18-20 years.
And since the land for this project is undeveloped and in public hands now, I'm thinking that the increment ticketed to pay off the loans will be about 100% of the annual collection, so the significant property tax 'gain' on the innovation center as taxable property will not anytime soon support current services, like local classrooms, police, fire protection and so forth.
Long-term benefit to Wauwatosa, you say?
Debatable.
There may be a few service jobs and contracts in the buildings that end up helping Wauwatosa residents, and a few new streets (with traffic, air pollution and noise) to drive on so you can see where the open space used to be - - and, yes, a school has some larger public value, though hard to quantify in this case)- - but the real benefit is to the project developer, the University and businesses connecting with the innovation center who get to tap into Wauwatosa for low-cost financing in exchange for project assistance.
I wonder if Wauwatosa's GOP base, or other fiscally-conservative/s,a;; government residents, will have the guts to call this corporate welfare?
Will they point out that TIF was created to add value in communities suffering from blight, not blessed with dwindling green space.
Take a look to the west to Pabst Farms, where $24 million in TIF dollars built infrastructure in a planned residential and commercial development that is only partially-completed, with plenty of homes for sale and entire subdivisions on hold.
Good use of tax dollars? Or was the land and the nearby residential population better off with open space there?
I'll bet Wauwatosa property taxpayers had no idea when the County Board sold UWM land for the project, or when the private sector pledged money for its piece of the puzzle, or when philanthropist and entrepreneur Michael Cudahy pulled out that they were going to be expected to pony up, too?
The tax incremental financing (TIF) district - - an arrangement wherein a municipality lends a project some money, and the loans are paid off through the increased tax collections on the project - - will be laid out at a meeting of the Wauwatosa Plan Commission at 7 p.m. in Wauwatosa City Hall.
Some details.
A TIF sounds like an easy money/win-win for everyone: developers and project managers get their infrastructure built with cheaply-borrowed municipal loans - - but the losers, at least until the loans are paid off - - are the taxing entities and services that rely on Wauwatosa property tax collections - - like schools and others that do not get their share of the increment.
They get their benefit from the increased taxes on the project when the TIF district is retired - - normally, in say, 15-18-20 years.
And since the land for this project is undeveloped and in public hands now, I'm thinking that the increment ticketed to pay off the loans will be about 100% of the annual collection, so the significant property tax 'gain' on the innovation center as taxable property will not anytime soon support current services, like local classrooms, police, fire protection and so forth.
Long-term benefit to Wauwatosa, you say?
Debatable.
There may be a few service jobs and contracts in the buildings that end up helping Wauwatosa residents, and a few new streets (with traffic, air pollution and noise) to drive on so you can see where the open space used to be - - and, yes, a school has some larger public value, though hard to quantify in this case)- - but the real benefit is to the project developer, the University and businesses connecting with the innovation center who get to tap into Wauwatosa for low-cost financing in exchange for project assistance.
I wonder if Wauwatosa's GOP base, or other fiscally-conservative/s,a;; government residents, will have the guts to call this corporate welfare?
Will they point out that TIF was created to add value in communities suffering from blight, not blessed with dwindling green space.
Take a look to the west to Pabst Farms, where $24 million in TIF dollars built infrastructure in a planned residential and commercial development that is only partially-completed, with plenty of homes for sale and entire subdivisions on hold.
Good use of tax dollars? Or was the land and the nearby residential population better off with open space there?
I'll bet Wauwatosa property taxpayers had no idea when the County Board sold UWM land for the project, or when the private sector pledged money for its piece of the puzzle, or when philanthropist and entrepreneur Michael Cudahy pulled out that they were going to be expected to pony up, too?
I would think that you would know the answer to this, but isn't this even worse than you describe?
ReplyDeleteIf this is part of the UW, it will NEVER pay property taxes.
All they will ever pay is some PILOT amount, but they won't pay propety taxes.
This gamble should be integrated with the UWM campus, it is indeed a waste of money and corporate welfare.
If you aren't willing to use it as some lame excuse to put in light rail, I certainly won't say its a worthwhile project subsized by the taxpayers.
On that much we agree.
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ReplyDeleteThis whole project still boggles my mind.
ReplyDeleteThe TIF was taken off the agenda for July 12th meeting--see wauwatosa.net Plan Commission agenda
ReplyDeleteDave - - I agree wholeheartedly. With the other business schools c downtown or close, the infrastructure, business connections - - it shouldn't have gotten this far.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to check the agenda
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ReplyDeleteI believe the innovation center will be taxable.
ReplyDeleteI've been writing about this since late 2007. It's a boondoggle, as I have said, and could easily collapse of its own weight, or because of a bad economy, or too-little support by the UW system in Madison.
TIF'ing it is salt in the wounds of Wauwatosa residents who have been objecting to the loss of public space and disruption to the Monarch butterfly migration site in/near the site.