tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30130444.post116005588157522985..comments2024-02-16T09:00:32.845-06:00Comments on FromDC2Iowa: Understanding TIFs (Revised 10/06/06)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30130444.post-1160088790434146532006-10-05T17:53:00.000-05:002006-10-05T17:53:00.000-05:00Nick, you raise a lot of good points. Some of the...Nick, you raise a lot of good points. Some of them I would disagree with, but I think it will take me more time than I can comment here. Your best arguments, in my opinion, are in point #8. I actually appreciated Karen Kubby's call for TIF guidelines in the Press-Citizen recently specifically because of those objections. I'll let you know when I have a chance to put together an analysis of the points you raise. Thanks for the thoughtful analysis.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30130444.post-1160061647415516802006-10-05T10:20:00.000-05:002006-10-05T10:20:00.000-05:00If the property tax rate is capped (and not all of...If the property tax rate is capped (and not all of them are) a loss of property tax revenue is not replaced by taxes paid by other property owners. The most likely outcome is a reduction of services provided by the taxing agency to the citizens.<BR/><BR/>If the rate rate is not capped then the property tax revenue lost by granting a TIF could (there is political risk in doing so) be replaced by increasing the rate. In such cases the tax burden is shifted to property owners who do not have TIFs.<BR/><BR/>The School district suffers the most from this arrangement because they depend on property tax revenue and intergovernmental fund transfers for income. The IGFs from the State of Iowa for school districts and both city and county governments have been shrinking (when measured in constant dollars) for the past ten years.<BR/><BR/>What the Governor and the friendly folks in the legislature also do it to cut one year and restore part of the cut the following year and claim that they increased funding. They get away with this fraud because nobody paid any attention to the watch dogs and they have given up.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com