Last night as the city council was posed to vote on the new TIF application process (Item#21, FF: 23:00) a very nervous Q-Tip Smith, director of parking, community development, and golden P’s, had to try to explain why there should not be transparency and disclosures when applying for TIF’s. This happened after councilor Jamison offered an amendment (that he later rescinded) that said there needs to be disclosure as to who is applying for TIF’s (he borrowed the language from Rapid City).
Ironically Smith brought up a representative from Lloyd companies (one of the biggest receivers of TIF’s in our city) and Mike Crane (who received TIF #11 that had to be signed by director Cotter instead of the mayor-hmm). To argue against disclosure. Investors, Investors, Investors, blah, blah, blah.
Of course Staggers and Anderson said it best; if you are looking for government assistance or taking advantage of a government program, disclosure and transparency should go along with that, Staggers went even further and accused TIF benefactors of having ‘political connections’ (Gee, is that why Director Cotter had to sign one of the TIF’s instead of the mayor 🙂
Of course Councilor Erpenbach poo-poo’d the amendment (not sure what her pro-censorship, anti-transparency stance is about anyway, it’s just becoming weirder by the day).
What I found even more ironic is that as a citizen I have to state my full name before I can even address the city council in a video-recorded public meeting for 5 minutes, but if I am asking for millions in the form of a tax break, I can remain anon until that application is approved.
This isn’t the last you have heard of this, while the new process passed w/o the disclosure, several of the councilors agreed this will be revisited.
Smith was also asked why it could not be deferred Tuesday night for another month, he mentioned an urgency about another TIF that was fast approaching (my assumption is that the developer who is asking to build condos between 13th and 14th on Phillips Avenue is asking for a TIF to tear down Sushi Masa, but that is just an educated guess).
The graphic below shows the current TIF’s the city has granted so far (the italicized Dunham TIF’s represent a company that is in transition)
CLICK TO ENLARGE
