Category: Wichita city government
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Tiff over Wichita TIFs
A post titled Keeping TIFs from a public tiff by Wichita Eagle business reporter Bill Wilson on the Eagle’s Business Casual blog reveals his bias in favor of government over individual action and preference. My post The Wichita Eagle?s Preference For Government documents one such example from the past. In this blog post Mr. Wilson…
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Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer saves us from covered wagons
Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer believes that without government oversight and planning of our economy, Wichita would revert back to the way it was at its founding.
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Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer, August 12, 2008
Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer believes that without government oversight and planning of our economy, Wichita would revert back to the way it was at its founding.
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Testimony Opposing Tax Increment Financing for the Ken Mar Redevelopment Project
Testimony of John Todd, opposing the formation of a tax increment financing (TIF) district, delivered to the Wichita City Council on August 12, 2008. Mr. Mayor and members of the Wichita City Council, thank you for allowing me this opportunity to speak before you today. My name is John Todd. I stand before you today…
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Reverend Kevass Harding’s Wichita TIF District: A Bad Deal in Several Ways
Remarks to be delivered to the Wichita City Council on August 12, 2008. There’s several reasons why this council should not approve this request for TIF financing. Material in today’s agenda packet doesn’t specify an amount, but past materials indicated that the project was $2.5 million short of the total needed for the project. Now…
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Testimony Opposing Expansion of the Wichita City South Redevelopment Tax Increment Financing District
From John Todd. Mr. Mayor and members of the Wichita City Council, thank you for allowing me this opportunity to speak before you today. My name is John Todd. I stand before you today as a citizen in opposition to the Expansion of the City South Redevelopment District (Tax Increment Financing) (Districts I & VI).…
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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,…