Tax increment financing ("TIF") districts result in less employment, less taxable income and higher tax rates. Those are the findings of a new study released by Ball State University discussed in a recent Fort Wayne Journal Gazette story that the editorial managers at the Indianapolis Star don't want you to read about. Ball State's Center for Business and Economic Research concludes TIFs are useless as an economic development tool.
Michael Hicks, who co-authored the study, attributed the negative impact of TIFs to the fact that businesses starting up or relocating to TIF areas shift jobs, which has a job-killing rate in other areas often impacted by resulting higher tax rates. Their study that covered the period from 2003 to 2012 concluded TIF districts had no discernible impact on sales tax revenues because retail activity simply shifted from non-TIF areas to TIF areas. The only thing TIFs really seem to accomplish according to the study is to shift the local government tax burden from TIF areas to non-TIF areas.
This is an issue that should be getting the legislature's attention, but I doubt it will because the people behind TIFs are wealthy, politically-connected real estate developers and their friends in the construction and legal industries whom benefit financially from the great TIF fraud and who have pretty much bought off most of your elected officials. The net assessed value of real property located within TIF districts grew a staggering $9 billion from $10 billion in 2003 to $19 billion in 2012. The largest TIF in the state by far, Indianapolis' downtown TIF, is a multi-billion dollar slush fund that finances one of the largest criminal rackets in the history of the state of Indiana. It's scandalous, but our absolutely useless news media is on the side of the racketeers so the truth is hidden from you.
11 comments:
What a surprise: "Study Finds TIFs Useless As Economic Development Tool".
Glad you posted this, Gary. It's instructive to see hard data challenging the supposed value of TIFs. More fundamentally, though, I disagree that government should be in the business of picking winners, whether geographically or by industry.
Your readers might be interested to discover that Keystone at the Crossing is a TIF.
I can assure you this shocking report will receive the highest possible action by our Elected Officials from State Offices on down. I am sure right now the plan is in the works to rectify the problem - which Ball State for publicly exposing this sham.
The only question I have is how quick will the Crony-Capitalist Establishment try to retaliate against Ball State??
Did Ball State just Scoop the The Star?? Maybe The Star will make a passing mention of it. If The Star makes any mention of the Ball State Report, they will counter balance it with plenty of unscientific B.S. from the Crony-Capitalists.
Seriously, this whole idea of TIFs, never did make any sense.
The original author of Indiana's TIFF legislation (~40 years ago), a capable economist, is opposed to them now & the abuses to which they lend themselves; pilfering the public treasury, crony socialism, etc.
What did Carmel do to itself?
I admire Hicks for publishing this. He had to know there was a steep risk of backlash from politicians, especially in Indy, who financially benefit from these shady deals. A lot of his research center's funding comes from the statehouse so I hope this doesn't come back to bite him. He's spoken and written against TIFs and government subsidies for development in the past - and I agree with many of his conclusions from an economics standpoint. He's well respected in this state. All we need is a cheerleader to keep the conversation going.
Does anyone know who funded the study? I didn't see anything on the BSU-CBER website.
It's funny how this hasn't shown up in the local media yet. Anyone out there think that's just a coincidence?
TIFs: Taking Income From Suckers
Borrowing from Peter to Pay Paul and they are both broke. Biggest Ponzi schemes of ALL TIME....
This is the anti-Robin Hood approach. Steal from the poor and give to the rich. Our sleeping tax payers vote for change without checking their voting records, vote for people that were worse than before. AND, vote out the ones who were trying to fix the problems. When will the people start following the issues and stop listening to lies on talk radio programs!
Post a Comment