Bury TIF
Last week, new county supervisor David Baker, Kronenwetter, attempted a bold move. He challenged Kurt Gibbs for the county board chairman’s gavel.
Baker argued that Gibbs had lost the focus of county government in withering political battles over a Community For All resolution and COVID-19 mask rules. He offered himself as the man to issue in “historic change” demanded by the county electorate.
Baker said the county board should not take a partisan direction, but definitely a rightward turn. Board goals, he said, should include protecting citizen constitutional rights and liberties, study elimination of the county’s $25 vehicle registration fee (“wheel tax”) and rethink use of federal American Rescue Plan Action funds.
Baker’s attempt to topple Gibbs failed by a 24-13 margin, but, as last week’s four hour reorganizational meeting grinded along, it became clear that the county board’s political center had shifted. Several liberal voices on the county board were gone, while several new conservative spokespeople made their presence known. A vague rightist coalition tangled with a vague centrist opposition. It was a tough slog to make it through the meeting. Everybody left the session exhausted.
Our fear is that just as we have polarized and dysfunctional federal and state governments, we could see the same thing happen at the county board level. That would be a bad development.
There was, however, one ray of sunshine. One of Baker’s announced goals was to, perhaps, take a harder stance when it comes to county approval of Tax Incremental District creation and extensions.
This is a splendid idea, one that conservatives, moderates and liberals should all be able to rally around.
Tax Incremental Finance insults everyone. It disrespects conservatives, giving undeserved subsidies to businesses in development plans better left to the marketplace. It enflames liberals, tossing government cash at the feet of developers which, otherwise, could be used to help society and clean up the environment. It outrages moderates by sheltering business property from regular property tax for decades, making it more difficult for local government to pave streets, pay cops, plow snow and still balance the budget.
The county board should make “historic change.” It should take a bold stand in opposition to Tax Incremental Finance. The county only has money to gain. Currently, Marathon County has over $1 billion in property locked up in 37 TIDs. State law attempts to cap TIDs at 12 percent of their home municipality’s equalized value. But the county’s TIDs calculate to 13.5 percent of the total equalized value of its cities and villages. Let’s say the county were to oppose any new TID until the county’s TIDs were under the 12 percent cap. That would bring in $526,689 that the county board, both liberals and conservatives, could use to pay for standard services, like 911 dispatch and road repair, rather than rely on one-time federal funds or loans.
Let’s dream big. We can think about the county closing out all of its TIDs in a generation. That would bring in $4.8 million annually under current tax rates. That’s not enough to fill a projected $10 million annual road maintenance shortfall projected by North Central Regional Planning, but it could finance half of that deficit. None of this means the county will be able to eliminate its wheel tax, as proposed by Baker, but maybe you could get by with only doubling and not tripling it over the next 28 years.
It will take months and a couple ultra-marathon meetings before the various personalities on a 38-member county board can figure out which way the political winds are going to blow this coming term. Let that process occur. Our hope, though, is that the county board can find common purpose in something, rather than split into angry, uncompromising factions. Let that shared purpose be the burial of TIF. It is the government program all political sides can learn to love to hate.
Editorial by Peter Weinschenk, The Record-Review
