Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Rock, Meet Hard Place

Here's a real-life political question. You live in a small city with depressed property values that has been almost entirely built-out. Tax revenue holds steady, while the cost of services continues to rise. With no new revenues, the only way the budget can be balanced while retaining necessary services (fire, police, street cleaning and maintenance) is to increase taxes every year.

The state has a program to encourage development in distressed municipalities. If voted for, it eliminates all state and local taxes for new or adaptive reuse projects in certain zones. On the one hand, passing these tax breaks is a way of encouraging redevelopment in the urban core, and when the breaks sunset promises the potential for increased revenue to the municipality. In 2011. On the other hand, for the 2009 budget to be balanced, both property taxes and earned income tax must be increased for the rest of us.

Do you support this program? Do you give tax breaks to developers while taxes go up for the rest of us? Or do you say no, and hope that developers will undertake projects in your city nonetheless? I'm completely on the fence on this one.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

the only person i call a reputable developer is your old landlord.when some guy comes around and starts 15 projects and wants 2 build 1100 homes and doesn't finish project one should b scrutinized and looked at with a magnifier.when the newwspaper says a certain market is hot,fine,but the amount of time it takes 2 realize a certain project may take 2 years, which is more then enough time 4 the market 2 cool down.I will b happy if they put the floor back in that grandiose builing and flip it.ray charles is blind and dead and he'll tell u that baby.tunsie.tunsie.tunsie i luv u el,,,,,,guess who the birthday girl is this month

Anonymous said...

wnen we started business,we worked hard and long hours.nowadays they want 2 hold the city hostage 2 go into business and they want guaranteed business to pad their journey,every business needs at least 5 years 2 b established and build a customer base.but no more if u can't guarantee me certain things i am not going 2 do it.cowards.tunsie 3x baby