The Milwaukee Post

8 • Milwaukee County Post • September 11, 2015 Tax increment financing districts (often called TIDs or TIFs) are like governmental heroin. Once you start using, you find it hard to stop. An outrageous abuse of TIFs in Waukesha is the latest example. It's become apparent that you can't count on government officials to show restraint in their misuse of TIF financing so the state has to do it for them. State Sen. Duey Stroebel of Cedarburg and other legislators are working on plans to dramatically scale back the types of uses for tax increment districts. It can't happen soon enough. The state is being overrun by these things. They are tax-eat- ing locusts swarming. Little Brown Deer has four of them. Kenosha never lets any of them expire. Milwaukee is using one for its inane trolley. They are looked at by big- spending local officials as a way of raising taxes while pretending not to raise them. The current Waukesha example and the role of a so-called "conservative" member of the state Legislature is the latest, and perhaps most, grotesque case. The Waukesha Common Council last week voted 7-6 to use an existing tax incre- ment district to make an insane $1.5 mil- lion loan to a condominium association that has allowed its property to become an eyesore. The condo owners have gone years neglecting basic maintenance and upkeep and can't come up with the cash now to prevent further deterioration that could lead to the whole joint being condemned. So, with Republican Assemblyman Scott "Karl Marx" Allen racing to the rescue, Waukesha wants to "lend" the money to the condo owners. To say that this is a giant leap from the original purpose of TIFs is an understate- ment. The original goal, when these dis- tricts were created, was to allow govern- ment to subsidize new economic develop- ment without using any current tax money. A common use was to pay for infra- structure improvements for a new project by using the growth in tax base the project would generate. In other words, the project itself would pay for the cost. Without the new project, there wouldn't be an increase in property value so the TIF theoretically is a wash. When used this way, TIF dis- tricts are excellent tools. The problem is that they are being horribly abused. Homeowners, be they in a condo associa- tion or a single-family home, are responsi- ble for keeping up their property. The own- ers of Sunset Homes in Waukesha haven't been responsible. Over decades they have allowed the roof, parking lot and building to deteriorate. Evidently unable to get a bank loan for the fortune they now need to finally fix their place up, they are sticking their hand out to the city of Waukesha, which magically wants to give them TIF money. What next? A guy whose furnace goes out asks Waukesha for a TIF? To show how bad this has gotten, offi- cials who think they are conservative have become the worst abusers. Allen popped into the Waukesha council meeting to join the begging for the TIF welfare. Allen got elected to the state Assembly last year in a contentious Republican primary by calling himself the most conservative candidate. But less than a year into his term, he's looking for a government to use tax money to bail out a bunch of deadbeats who don't take care of their property. If you can't even stop self-proclaimed conservatives from scamming the TIF laws to fund feel-good liberal goofiness, the state guidelines have to be changed. Reform is needed to limit TIFs to new projects. They need to have specific end dates, be tied to job creation and have to be limited to pri- vate-sector business projects. Waukesha's abuse and Allen's own tone-deafness on the issue prove the need for a rules change. Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly could veto the horrible council action, but given that the original idea came from Waukesha city staff, it's doubtful that he'll do it. Bureaucrats have come to look at TIFs "creatively" and the elected officials are usually unwilling to restrain them. They are like school boards who make sure they tax to their legal limit for fear of leaving any money on the table. In this instance, the TIF district has extra money laying around so Waukesha staffers, Scott Allen and the rest of the tax joggers can't keep their hands off of it. The dumbest use of local tax money (not counting the Milwaukee trolley) in recent years was the Menomonee Falls decision to lend $18 million to an outfit that wanted to by a hotel near the freeway. Not surprising- ly, the place went into receivership and the community lost millions. But Waukesha's loan to Sunset Homes may trump the idio- cy from the Falls. Aside from the fact that government shouldn't be bailing out pri- vate homeowners, the great likelihood is that the Sunset Homes owners will stiff the city and not pay back the loan. They have a history and it is one of irresponsibility. So far, they have hurt only themselves. Allen and Waukesha city government are enabling them to rip off their fellow city residents. (Mark Belling is the host of a daily WISN radio talk show. His column appears weekly in the Milwaukee Post. Send your personal correspondences to Mark Belling at Clear Channel Communications, c/o WISN, 12100 W. Howard Ave., Greenfield, WI 53228). MARK BELLING STANDING UP for MILWAUKEE Condo project a questionable use of tax funds OPINION Last week's question The Packers kick off their sea- son Sept. 13 against the Bears in Chicago.What challenges might they face this season? Go ahead, predict their record and where will they finish. This week's question It's near the time municipal and other governmental bodies hold public budget hearings.Which sacred budget cow should not be touched or which should get the ax? Editor's note: When responding to the Question of the Week, please include your full name with spelling, phone number and city where you live. Phone numbers will not be published. Anonymous responses are no longer accepted by the publication. Call 744- 6370, Ext. 15 and leave a brief answer. Readers may also send an email with a brief answer to: dmuck@conleynet.com. Question of the week Send your letters to: The Milwaukee Post, c/o Dan Muckelbauer, 3397 S. Howell Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53207, or by email to: dmuck@conleynet.com. We reserve the right to edit letters for style, length and clarity. Letters should be typewritten or printed and include full name, phone number and address. Please keep your letters to no more than 400 words. Letters policy A sad footnote in civil liberties To the editor: Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis refuses to issue licenses for gay couples. She states this is about "religious liberty." Imagine if a Muslim clerk refused to issue marriage licens- es to Christians, Jews or anyone else. Would anyone defend him or her? Of course not, and nor should they. There is no right to be a gov- ernment employee and not do your job. No one has forced Davis to remain in her job; if she finds issuing licenses to loving gay couples such an awful thing, she chooses to stay in it while collecting a salary. She states her authority comes from her deity. Well, her deity isn't signing her pay- checks. Davis states she will not obey the law and the Constitution, but only her religion. This shows her support for the idea of a theocracy, a government con- trolled by the dogma and dictates of a religion, not "We the People," or its Constitution. One example of a theocracy is that bastion of freedom, Iran. Now, the Founders gave us a secular republic and I will be darned if I see 500 years of Enlightenment progress regressed by a clerk in Kentucky. Kim Davis is not Martin Luther King; he went to jail to fight dis- crimination, she is in jail because she tried to keep up dis- crimination. History will remember her as a sad footnote in the march for- ward of civil liberties and equal- ity. Jerome McCollom Milwaukee LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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