UPDATE:Â The rumor swirling around is that this TIF could have a value of over $91 million+ and a certain bank with a certain councilor working at this bank wants to finance projects at Flopdation Park with the caveat that this TIF can be used as collateral. So guess who is on the hook if the Development Foundation defaults . . . you guessed it. I’m hearing that many of the councilors are very uncomfortable with the TIF and they may have the 5 votes to kill it and send it back to the drawing table. Of course this is all speculation until we hear more tomorrow, stay tuned, they are going to have to clean out Carnegie with skid steers after this meeting.
To say I was a little disgusted when reading the agenda of the meeting is an understatement. Of course I knew this was coming;
• TIF 23 – Foundation Park North Update by Bob Mundt, President, Sioux Falls Development Foundation; and Jeff Eckhoff, Director of Planning and Development Services (No supporting documents in SIRE)
• Marion Road Improvements at Foundation Park by Mark Cotter, Director of Public Works (there are supporting documents and maps in SIRE)
The State, County and City has already given millions towards Foundation Park in infrastructure, and we are set to give more with the road improvements. I can’t imagine if we spent the same amount of money on our core, fixing up the infrastructure we already own?
But that is the least of our problems. The city is proposing for the first time an open-ended TIF. While I am opposed to millions in tax rebates to even local developers, I am even more weary of international companies that pay little to no Federal taxes and make billions paying less than a living wage. But what makes this TIF even more egregious is that it will give the Development Foundation carte blanche to have an open ended TIF that can use for however long they want to. One of the reasons the docs are not yet posted on SIRE is because this will be the largest scam in property taxes in the history of our city. Large corporations will come into Foundation Park, pay little in property taxes, little in Federal income taxes, pay low wages and send all the profits straight out of town while us worker bees pick up the slack in higher property taxes and infrastructure costs.
In other words, for the hardworking folks in Sioux Falls like you and me, IT’S A BAD DEAL!
Anybody promoting this on Tuesday and tells you this is a good thing for our community is FULL OF SH!T!