Terrell's concerns are well-placed. Corporations elbowing at the TIF trough will tell you when challenged about their contradictory and self-serving seeking of public dollars for their private investments (with nary a risk or equity requirement on their part � something any bank would require of any other borrower) that they can't afford to build without the city dollars and that they're forced to consider other locales when seeing to expand.
And, of course - jobs. All of the colluders tout the job-creation such "investments" - say, handouts - invoke. Let's be clear: jobs that come by way of a building are transfers from other buildings somewhere else. Jobs are touted as 1) tax-producers, and 2) retail revenue producers. Neither is correct because 1) the only local taxes generated by jobs are the property taxes paid by residents of the cities in which they work. (Most workers do not sell and move to Minneapolis or St. Paul because their jobs have moved there. They just commute further or shorter than before the shift in locale); and 2) most workers still shop downtown if they've already been shopping downtown, but definitely still shop in malls near where they live, not downtown. Lund's employees are not going to change their retail buying habits by virtue of a job transfer to downtown Minneapolis. It's utter nonsense. They wheedle city officials into believing that a total exodus of all business from the loops will surely be the outgrowth of a refusal to fund private capital with taxpayer monies. What they never acknowledge is that, under all other circumstances these corporations insist that government stay out of their hair, leave them alone, let the market decide. I'll take your money, but don't regulate me and don't expect me to live by your "unfair" rules. Say what? These companies and the development types downtown want us to believe the urban core would become a ghost town if we didn't keep feeding this greed and manipulation. It's blackmail, pure and simple, and it's long past time to call their bluff. Our cities are deep in debt, thanks to TIF, and the other taxing jurisdictions are going to suffer serious revenue losses in the next 25-50 years because of the loss of normal future property tax revenue to pay the bonds issued to build these buildings we don't own. My theory is this: If cities and counties and other public jurisdictions cough up the basic capital to fund corporate buildings, the public should own a large slice of the companies they/we are capitalizing. An equity position for Minneapolis, St. Paul, Hennepin County, Ramsey County, etc., would at least yield a return of more than promises of jobs and taxes we'll never really see, and which do little by way of beefing up the retail sector. That's what other investors get - an equity position and a return on their investment - guaranteed by us when we fund their projects. Where is ours? That's something RT can sell. It's time to start saying, "No." Andy Driscoll Saint Paul ------ "The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who, in times of moral crisis, remain neutral" --Dante > From: "Terrell Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 11:32:24 -0700 (PDT) > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [Mpls] City subsidy for downtown Lund's store > > Walking from lunch at home back to the office a few minutes ago, I > noticed the headline of one of the free weeklies mentioning a downtown > grocery store. A quality grocery store downtown is not a new topic. > > Not far into the article, guess what? The store needs a city subsidy > of $8-12 million. Why is it that everytime someone suggests building > downtown, they want us taxpayers to chip in? > > Granted the $8-12 million is significantly less than what Mayor > Sayles-Belton and Jackie Cherryholmes rammed through for the Target > store and Block E. > > At $8-12 milliion, its not much more than what we taxpayers paid to > move the Shubert Theatre. Now I've forgotten why we moved the Shubert, > but it doesn't look much different in its new location, its just more > noticeable. > > Back to the subsidy. $4 million is for 30 affordable housing units. > That's $133,000 per unit, not an especially good deal. For $133,000 > per we can go buy 30 downtown condo units, rent it out at affordable > rates and have money left over to buy a few more units. (The Towers > and the north end of downtown and 1200 on the Mall on the south end > come to mind as places where you can buy for less than $133K). For > $133,000 per unit we can build virtually anywhere in town. > > Yes, I'd like a downtown grocery store. I'd prefer it be a bit closer > to home so that walking home with a weeks worth of groceries would be a > reasonable consideration. I do, however, fail to see why whenever > anyone wants to build on some of the most desirable real estate in the > metro area their first stop is at City Hall to see how much of a > subsidy they can get. > > Hasn't City Hall learned that the TIF gravy train has got to come to an > end? > > > > Terrell Brown > Loring Park > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Listen to your Yahoo! Mail messages from any phone. > http://phone.yahoo.com > _______________________________________ > Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy > Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: > http://e-democracy.org/mpls > _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
