David Brauer writes:
> I think Terrell Brown took the time to make moderate
> Republican points - but aiming his fire more at DFL politicos ....
I don't think that all of these points need to be considered partisan. I
don't need to look to only one party to find people who think that our
property tax system needs some major changes.
Lets look at one of the reasons why property taxes have seen some of their
recent increases. The City's abuse of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) has
kept about 15% of the property value off the general tax roles. This isn't
a short term thing, much of the property is kept off the roles for 25 years.
This abuse isn't limited to Minneapolis. You need only read yesterday's
Strib to see that Richfield is planning to redevelop part of that city with
a TIF district that will last 25 years. The current plan of course isn't
the first for that area, plans go back to 1993 (so it could approach Block E
in planning by the time its done). The plan is to build a headquarters for
a major retailer (ummm ... didn't that happen in Minneapolis?) with no
benefit to the general tax roles for 25 years. What do they do then, make
in another TIF district because Best Buy has moved its corporate
headquarters to Paris after being bought by who knows what major
international corporation?
Can you find a major development in downtown Minneapolis that didn't involve
TIF? In the past 5 years? I find it hard to believe that all of this
development in a major business district requires tax subsidy.
Without this subsidy we likely would be seeing a history of property tax
decreases.
Terrell
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Terrell Brown
Loring Park
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.terrellbrown.org
