Tag: Tax abatements

  • The ‘tax expenditure’ solution for our national debt

    While most critics of government spending focus on entitlements, regular appropriations, and earmarks, there is a category of spending that not many pay much attention to. The spending is called “tax expenditures.” In Kansas some have been calling them “tax appropriations.” It’s a big issue. As economist Martin Feldstein writes in the Wall Street Journal,…

  • Wichita community improvement districts should have warning signs

    At today’s meeting of the Wichita City Council, council members may approve the start of the process to create two Community Improvement Districts in Wichita. CIDs are a creation of the Kansas Legislature from last year. They allow merchants in a geographic district to collect additional sales tax of up to two cents per dollar.…

  • Wichita Warren Theater groundbreaking raises policy issues

    Friday’s groundbreaking of a new Warren Theater and renovation of the existing theater in west Wichita provide an opportunity to revisit some of the public policy issues surrounding Wichita city government and its intervention in the economy in the name of economic development.

  • Wichita’s Jeff Longwell on TIF districts, tax abatements

    Is a tax increment financing (TIF) district a tax abatement? Wichita city council member Jeff Longwell, now Wichita’s vice-mayor, doesn’t think so. During this week’s city council meeting, Longwell said this in explaining his support of a TIF district created for the benefit of Real Development: “One of the things that people I think need…

  • Wichita Larksfield Place bonds should not be issued

    Today’s meeting of the Wichita city council will have a public hearing concerning the issuance of health care facilities revenue bonds for Larksfield Place, a decidedly high-end retirement and assisted living center in east Wichita.

  • Wichita Exchange Place TIF should be rejected

    Tomorrow’s meeting of the Wichita city council will feature a public hearing as to whether a tax increment financing district that benefits Real Development should be modified.

  • Wichita Warren Theater IRB a TIF district in disguise

    On Tuesday the Wichita City Council will consider an economic development incentive for a local business. The process the city is using to grant this incentive bypasses the scrutiny that accompanies the formation of TIF districts while providing essentially the same benefit.

  • Will the real robber barons please stand up?

    At the April 13th meeting of the Wichita City Council a request from downtown developer Real Development will be made for an additional $2.2 million taxpayer subsidy for its condo project Exchange Place, located at Douglas and Market. With two weeks to go before this public hearing there is still time for council members to…

  • Kansas sales tax exemptions don’t hold all the advertised allure

    Advocates of eliminating sales tax exemptions in Kansas point to the great amount of revenue that could be raised if Kansas eliminated these exemptions, estimated at some $4.2 billion per year. Analysis of the nature of the exemptions and the amounts of money involved, however, leads us to realize that the additional tax revenue that…