Category: Wichita city government
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Downtown Wichita Arena TIF District
Remarks to Wichita City Council, August 5, 2008. When I’ve been talking to people in Wichita, I find there is great confusion about the way that TIF districts work. This confusion serves to obfuscate what really happens with TIF districts: the TIF developers get to use their own property taxes to pay for things that…
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Do Wichita TIF Districts Create Value?
A recent Wichita Eagle article City tax districts aren’t breaking even reports on some of the problems with tax increment financing, or TIF, districts in Wichita: One promise of TIFs was that revitalizing certain areas — such as Old Town and the East Bank — would boost property values throughout downtown. In the past four…
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What Wichita Vice Mayor Sharon Fearey Doesn’t Understand
In a Wichita Eagle article City tax districts aren’t breaking even we find this whopper of a quote: Vice Mayor Sharon Fearey likened the situation to what would happen if she put a swimming pool in her yard. “I’d probably actually lose money, but for the years that I’ve had that swimming pool, I’d have…
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Wichita City Council’s misunderstanding of tax increment financing
On July 8, 2008 I testified at a public hearing at a Wichita city council meeting. Afterward, a council member told me that I had a “glaring error” in my arguments. I won’t identify this member in order to avoid embarrassing the member. The minutes of the meeting don’t identify the member who said this,…
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Wichita Smoking Ban: Authoritarian, Elitist?
Here’s some good commentary I received from a citizen. Wichita’s smoking “ban” will take effect before too long.? Smoke ’em while you can, I guess. Wichita’s Smoking Ban and the latest authoritarian arrogance emitted by elitist professor University of Kansas School of Medicine professor Dr. Rick Kellerman is?on the front page of the May 30…
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Government Art in Wichita
Do we really want government art in Wichita? David Boaz, in his recent book The Politics of Freedom: Taking on The Left, The Right and Threats to Our Liberties writes this in a chapter titled “The Separation of Art and State”: It is precisely because art has power, because it deals with basic human truths,…
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Wichita Old Town Theater’s Bill Warren: No Ideas?
Recently the Wichita City Council approved a no-interest and low-interest loan to Old Town Wichita theater owner Bill Warren and his partners. Citizen opinion in Wichita seems to be mostly outrage at this giveaway, and rightly so. See Wichita Old Town Warren Theater Public Hearing Remarks and Wichita and the Old Town Warren Theater Loan.
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Reverend Kevass Harding and His Wichita TIF District
Remarks to be delivered to the Wichita City Council, July 8, 2008. Mr. Mayor and members of the council, today I will not discuss the desirability of tax increment financing (TIF) districts in general, or the merits of this one in particular. I’ll leave that for the August 12 public hearing. Instead, I wish to…
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Wichita Council Member Jeff Longwell: We Can, and Do, Read
Wichita City Council Member Jeff Longwell, in the news article Little time to review Warren loan terms (July 1, 2008 Wichita Eagle), was reported as remarking “It’s unlikely many residents would read the full contract even if it had been made public earlier.” Mr. Longwell, many people in Wichita do read documents such as these.…
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In Wichita, is Economic Development Proven Public Policy?
In a statement read by Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer and released on the city’s website at Mayor Brewer Warren Theatre [sic] Statement, the mayor states “Economic development is proven public policy.” The word “proven” was used several other times in the statement. (I don’t know who wrote the title to the statement, but it combines…
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Wichita Old Town Warren Theater Public Hearing Remarks
From John Todd. Testimony I presented before the Wichita City Council on July 1, 2008 in opposition to the proposed Old Town Warren Theater LLC loan. The question before the council today relates to the proper role of government. I believe the role of government is that of acting as a non-partial judge from the…
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Wichita and the Old Town Warren Theater Loan
Remarks to be delivered to the Wichita City Council, July 1, 2008. Mr. Mayor and members of the Council, we are potentially beginning a journey down a road where there are two classes of businesses in Wichita. There are business owners who seek to earn their profit through market entrepreneurship, that is, by meeting the…