Fort Wayne's Toll Road-650 Miles of Downtown Property

No wonder our Mayor Dick was rewarded with a raise. The Journal Gazette reports about Harrison Square and I blogged about early here. The Mayor calls it a catalyst, I call it a "My Man Mitch Pitch." Governor Mitch Daniels catalyst for the revitalization of Indiana was the toll road, and Mayor Graham Richard catalyst for revitalizing downtown Fort Wayne is a stadium. According to the Journal-Gazette,

We had a plan to develop a catalyst, and all of a sudden the Wizards get bought, not just by a baseball owner but by a developer used to taking risks specifically in downtown areas,” Richard said. “They said, ‘Here’s an opportunity to invest not just in a ball team, but in a dynamic rebirth of a downtown.’

Daniels rented or sold the toll road to a private company to raise money, Richard is offering property tax money which can be allocated to special taxing district. The special taxing district will use the increase in taxes from the increase in property values during a reassessment to pay for projects. This property tax increase is called TIF for short.

TIF is the diverting of revenue from the payment of property tax funds after a property value increases. If there is a the property increase more than likely so will the property tax increase. The City will keep the old amount for budget purpose and keep the difference from the increase in property tax to place into a general funds to be spent in the special district only.

But I thought the property tax was for schools, housing, you say. Yeah, but the legislators established authority to set up a commission to be responsible for directing any redevelopment commission to designate any area as a blighted area that can be developed through the ordinary operations of private enterprise including non-blighted areas for economic development. Where were you when Belmont was fighting this thing? Or the scheme of ripping off the owners' value in the Southtown Property to be used later by the public-private sector of Fort Wayne that went all the way to the Indiana Supreme Court?

Is this not the same as the families who lived in the Harrison Square area. TIF is supposed to be for the temporary allocation of redevelopment or economic district of the citizens property taxes to be used for a variety of purposes to improve the areas.

Municipal bonds are then issued to finance the public improvements. Bonds payable from TIF may be used to finance the cost of redevelopment and the construction of public improvement in the redevelopment area or for projects that directly serve or benefit that area. Once the bonds have been paid off, the taxes collected from the allocated area are distributed to the remaining taxing districts, such as schools.

TIF districts are to encourage developers to invest in dying business areas or in land banked industrial sites. Some requirements are for developers to diversify development beyond retail, connect to downtown with transportation, help existing business grow and expand, and foster economic development by assisting entrepreneurs in the area with start up and strengthen the economic base in the area.

Harrison square is sold as the public benefit and all the improvement as the catalyst attempting to duplicate Atlanta's popular Georgia Aquarium, billed as the largest as well as a museum dedicated to a soft drink company, according to the article.

Within four years, the $2 billion Allen Plaza is planned to have five other buildings in adjacent blocks that would house offices, apartments, condos, retail outlets and another hotel, all built by Barry or in partnership with Atlanta apartment landlord Post Properties.

Helping spark this revival, across from the park, is the year-old, hugely popular Georgia Aquarium, billed as the world’s largest,
and the new World of Coca-Cola, a museum under construction dedicated to the soft drink.

One City Council member, Tom Smith does not oppose the stadium being built downtown, but questions the private developers mere $5 million contribution. But Smith does not go deep enough, the public-private dollars are more like, the property owners would pay with their property taxes, $82 millions and the private owners $43 millions for the entire project.

There is nothing complicated about understanding TIF dollars. The question is where does TIF dollars come from? Answer, TIF comes from property tax after a reassessment. If you were paying $90 in property tax dollars on your property in 2001 and your property taxes increases to $270 in 2003 there is a difference. Well, the City will freeze their portion at $90 and put the remaining $180 into a general fund. The $180 is marked off as TIF to be spent just in that special district. But as the Journal-Gazette points out the success of Apple Glen and Jefferson Point as TIF and used the money from those special district to give some downtown project some of the money. But that is not how it works. This is not too much different from when the county borrowed from Hersey company and gave to General Motors abatement issues.

Wait you need to know some of these TIF special districts? Let's see:

Jefferson Pointe area, Midtown Crossing, Baer Field Economic Development Area(EDA), Centennial Park, Jefferson/Illinois EDA, Maysville Stellhorn Road EDA, Summit Industrial Park. And lets not forget the Bluffton Road area that includes General Motors, Fort Wayne Assembly. Do you understand why downtown looks like a desolate valley?

Why siphon away parts of property taxes and place into a general funds because your tax dollars can helps improve selected area instead of amenities that makes for a better quality life for all of Fort Wayne citizens. The money would pay for schools, library, housing in our city. But, tax payers don't want to subsides the lives of the poor while they giving handouts to the rich in the amount of $83 million. So, the millions of dollar that are collected in the General Motors area benefits that area not the whole city. Jefferson Pointe taxes benefit that area only not the whole city. But we offer these businesses abatements and other stuff. So what is the city doing with your property tax dollars if not paying to improve schools, giving it to developers to encourage them to take a risk in big ticket items in our city. So why is the City saying it's not increasing property taxes to build the stadium. Because it sounds good.

Now imagine this community of dreamers if you didn't have a special project where would the money go that's in the general funds? It would go toward the schools that the city is telling you that will cost billions of dollars to fix up? What do you think developers should invest in first, building for educating people rather than buildings for recreation?

Are you still with me? The City is saying it will have to raise taxes to fix schools, but.......(you need a moment to digest this)....the tax dollars from the new increase will still go into the general funds and the schools will get some of the property tax increase. That's right the new increases will benefit the special projects and not much to the schools. You elected these folks, while your children suffer. And why the Mayor is enjoying his new $130,000 salary. It's your money