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January 12, 2005
Ding Dong, the TIF Is Dead
Mayor Dan has gotta be crying in his organic cafe latte this morning. The AG has delivered his opinion and the answer is NO, the Arkansas Supremes mandated 25 mills allocated to schools cannot be included in a Tax Increment Financing district. (AG opinion here)
I love the smell of being right first thing in the morning. It smells like.....'I told you so'.
The AG goes on to say that the Legislature could amend the TIF legislation to include said 25 mills, but that would likely face a constitutional challenge. Plus, if the Legislature re-directs the money from those 25 mills to a TIF district, then the state would be required under the Supremes' mandate to pony up the money to replace it.
Good luck getting that passed. Ha! Like that'll happen.
Meanwhile, Mayor Dan is busy exploring other funding options.
The city of Fayetteville and Washington County could use their 7.2 mills of property tax, even though the loss of 25 mills from the project means the bond issue would take longer to pay off.
The Fayetteville council could vote to put up $3.5 million of its reserve funding as collateral when the bonds are issued to tear down the dilapidated hotel.
Or they could try to pass a sales tax increase, which they've also been discussing. None of which is going to be popular with the local constituency. Everybody's all for spending large sums of money.......until it's coming out of their own pockets.
Then they start asking the hard questions, like "Why do we need to pay for this?"
The honest answer is "We don't."
Posted by Rita at January 12, 2005 07:55 AM
Comments
"I love the smell of being right first thing in the morning. It smells like.....'I told you so'."
That's the funniest damn thing I've read all week. :)
Posted by: Craig at January 13, 2005 03:03 PM
He's Alive! Glad to know you're still out there somewhere, Craig.
And thanks for the compliment!
Posted by: rita at January 14, 2005 09:48 AM