Mar

20

TIF audit released

March 20, 2007 | 22 Comments

The much-discused TIF audit has been released after several citizens filed Sunshine Law requests. The Star has an overview and Heidi provides copies of the report and more info. If it’s this easy, one has to wonder why none of the mainstream media or political opponents thought to simply ask for it?? Kudos to Heidi and everyone else who filed a Sunshine Law request.

Some of the highlights…

  • There is still no overall policy to regulate tax breaks.
  • The vast majority of TIFs are based on faulty revenue projections
  • 78% of TIF projects are losing money.
  • 10 TIF projects are backed by City bonds.
  • 5 City-backed TIFs are losing money and require taxpayers to cover their debt payments.

One indicative project is BriarTIF West, home to Mayor Kay Barnes. It was supposed to generate $37 million, but so far has only brought in $6 million. Apparently the mayor needs to do more shopping in her own backyard.

Categories: City Council, KC Mayor, Politics, blogging


Comments

22 Comments so far

  1. RED101 on March 20, 2007 1:56 pm

    Yeah, and the Star reports it as ‘members of the public’, giving noone in the Blogosphere credit. Why weren’t they requesting copies of it themselves? Smack smack smack.

  2. Heidi on March 20, 2007 2:17 pm

    Hello…this is a purely political move on the part of Gary White and Mark Funkhouser…this has been a one-dimensional campaign on Funkhouser’s part and an undeniable misuse of his public office and public trust since 1998 when he decided to run for Mayor. Gary and Mark knew the flawed report was going to be released this week. In all likelihood the long-awaited citizen satisfaction survey that Mark wrote in his coniving grab for power will be released on Thursday. Who is the insider now, folks?

  3. ryan on March 20, 2007 2:31 pm

    Yes, this report is flawed because it makes things look as dire as everyone already knew they were…

  4. patrick on March 20, 2007 2:53 pm

    Funkhouser decided to run for mayor in 1998? How’d I miss that one? Or are you saying he’s secretly planned on running for mayor since 1998? In which case, nine years seems far too long to develop and hatch a plot to seize the Mayor’s office by audit. Or maybe he’s just that coniving and devious.

    C’mon, Heidi, you can do better than that. Funkhouser’s been talking about citizen satisfaction survey reports that have already been issued. Besides I’m sure he’s got a pretty firm grasp of what the voters are thinking by campaigning for the last four months.

    But while were on the subject of abuse of public trust and public office, how about that extra $37 million the city will have to cover for the P&L District? I understand city hall is outraged residents knows just how much the bill is going to be.

  5. RED101 on March 20, 2007 3:03 pm

    Heidi, I’m curious to know where your information is coming from regarding the all powerful Auditor Twins knowing this would be released? I take issue with opinions being presented as facts.

    I stand corrected on the Star. What about the Citizens Association?

  6. Mark Forsythe on March 20, 2007 3:12 pm

    Heidi (not of MeML&I)

    You’re right on, but the conspiracy goes back further than 1998. Remember Tien Amin Square? That was Funkhouser driving the tank trying to run down that lone protester. The Olympic bombing in Atlanta? Does Funk have an alibi? I bet not. Deep Throat was referenced by Bob Woodward in his notes as “MF”. Mark Felt? Hardly. Mark Funkhouser! The second shooter at Daly Plaza? You guessed it.

    It’s all led up to this election. All part of the grand master plan.

  7. Larry T on March 20, 2007 3:24 pm

    Well at least we now know what Alvin Brooks has been doing for the last 8 years for the citizens of KC. With spending habits this poor it won’t be long before we have take our trash to the dump and still pay for the bags.

  8. Stephen on March 20, 2007 4:12 pm

    This is such a misleading report. In the vast majority of the cases, it’s the developer benefiting from the incentive that’s losing money, not the City. Only 10 TIF projects have bonds — and it’s only projects with bonds that could cause the City to lose money. Maybe only 1 TIF project with bonds is underperforming. It would be nice if they published the whole truth.

  9. RED101 on March 20, 2007 4:33 pm

    How bout dipping in to the GENERAL FUND Stephen? (see the cover page)

  10. jeanne on March 20, 2007 6:27 pm

    It’s too bad Alvin doesn’t use e-mail. He’ll never know what he’s missing by not reading these blogs.

  11. patrick on March 20, 2007 7:14 pm

    Stephen,

    Red101 is correct. Those projects not backed by city bonds are funded through sales and earning tax revenues.

    If it were simply private developers losing money, there would be no story. However, the city is backing these losing and underperforming projects to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

  12. patrick on March 20, 2007 7:17 pm

    Red101,

    Heidi is getting her “facts” from Councilman Chuck Eddy. He threw a tantrum over the release of the TIF audit and that made the news on KCUR. Her comment is about the same thing he said today.

    I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about Eddy’s credibility.

  13. ChrisM70 on March 20, 2007 7:43 pm

    I also think that commenter #4 purposely called themselves “Heidi” to try and confuse the issue by making people think this was the comments of Heidi from http://www.memyi.us. – the person who helped get these documents released.

    Let’s hope this commenter isn’t some political troller trying to poison honest debate.

  14. Ros on March 21, 2007 3:17 pm

    It is unfortunate that Barns and Eddy have negatively impacted Brooks. Their association has lowered my opinion of his capabilities. I wonder if he just goes along,he seems like a follower rather than a leader.We all heard on the radio this morning on 710 a.m. how Eddy talks out of both sides of his mouth-praising Funkhouser one day and berrating him the next.!Good work 710a.m. Now Barnes is mad because of “BriarTIFF” before she is our of office!

  15. jeanne on March 21, 2007 5:37 pm

    You’re right on,Ros. I live in the sixth district and Alvin never seems to have a clue about what’s going on out here. He rarely attends community meetings, but whenever he does he always defers to Chuck to talk about district issues. All Alvin can talk about is his experiences talking to prisoners in some jail or other.
    You might also take a look at the amount those TIFs have lost. Two of them, Hickman Mills and Santa Fe, are in the sixth district.

  16. Stephen on March 22, 2007 9:32 am

    Red 101 and Patrick —

    Per the report, TIF projects backed by City Bonds are in the hole roughttly $7.5 million dollars (Chart on Page 11). There is no projected cumulative deficit for bonded project (same chart).

    For non-bonded projects, there is no exposure to the general fund whatsoever. While reimbursements on these non-bonded (“pay as you go”) TIFs are, in fact, funded from sales, earnings and real property taxes, if the project doesn’t generate those taxes, no reimbursement is made. In other words, on pay-as-you-go TIFs, if a project doesn’t live up to its billing, it’s the developer’s budget, not the City’s, that suffers.

  17. Heidi on March 22, 2007 3:23 pm

    chirp, chirp…I love how Stephen enlightens the crew and then it is radio silence. Its hard to dispute the facts, isn’t it folks?

    The report is flawed, terribly flawed, because it is written by someone who wants to be Mayor. For all his promises of transparency and open government, it would have been nice if he had been forthright with the citizens of Kansas City in April of ‘06 that he would be running for Mayor on our dime. An auditor must be completely unbiased. How could he do that while planning his campaign for Mayor?

  18. heidi who blogs at memyi.us, not the Eddy/Barnes Parrot going by Heidi here on March 22, 2007 6:30 pm

    Wow, Gary White wants to be Mayor now too?

    I love how the Mayor and some of Council want to bag on the Auditor (whether current or previous) on this. The Auditor reports to the Mayor and Council. So if these auditors have allegedly sucked so much — what does that tell us about the managerial skills (or lack thereof) of the said Mayor and Council? Ooops.

  19. D. R. Peironnet on March 22, 2007 8:34 pm

    I see criticisms that the audit is “terribly flawed” but without details or specifics.

    Those who are dissatisfied should explicitly identify methodological deficiencies and how those specific deficiencies have resulted in a “flawed” interpretation.

  20. Sam on March 23, 2007 11:33 pm

    No matter what “Heidi” and Stephen try to say, every time I pass that corporate welfare TIF project in the plaza, I’ll be reminded to vote for whoever is going to mute such give-aways. If this city were using TIFs correctly, we’d see most of them on Troost or east of Troost. But no. Briarcliff. The Plaza. It’s disgusting.
    And yeah, I’d love to see the ‘terribly flawed’ crowd discuss the METHOD rather than the conclusions. Just because they don’t like the answer doesn’t mean the methodology is flawed. But perhaps Heidi and Stephen are accountants…or city auditors. Who knows?

  21. Bubba on March 24, 2007 9:03 am

    What is the significance of the nearly quarter of a billion dollars that supposedly has not yet materialized? Is this the amount that developers have yet to receive because they haven’t gotten their projects together yet?
    People are not taking chances on this election. Look at the ordinances that were approved this week. Just this week the Council voted to approve several ordinances approving more TIF projects in the Plaza. Not coincidentally, Alvin Brooks voted for each one of these.

  22. Blog 2.1 » Quotas on March 27, 2007 8:19 am

    [...] beaten by three men while walking with his girlfriend in Westport? Considering the rate at which the city is backing failing developers’ projects with taxes paid by KC residents, it’s easy to see why they might be more concerned with revenue. It takes a lot of cash to hand [...]

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