Tag: Tax increment financing

  • 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.

  • Kansas news digest

    News from alternative media around Kansas for March 29, 2010.

  • Randal O’Toole discusses urban planning in Wichita

    Last week Cato Institute Senior Fellow Randal O’Toole was in Wichita. He delivered a public lecture Thursday evening to a crowd that braved poor weather to attend. O’Toole said he spent 15 years studying urban planning. He said he’s learned this: “Urban planners promise us paradise on earth, but first we have to give them…

  • More questions surround WaterWalk hotel proposal

    Yesterday the Wichita Eagle printed a letter from citizen activist John Todd concerning the proposal for City of Wichita subsidy for a hotel in the downtown WaterWalk development. This is the unabridged version of the letter. In 2002 elected city officials leased a prime 20-acre parcel of city owned downtown land known as the East…

  • Estes Park repeals TIF district

    A city in Colorado has voted to repeal a TIF district. Wichitans ought to take notice. Randal O’Toole, the author of the post, notes the complexity of the TIF mechanism. This is in line with testimony I’ve delivered to the Wichita City Council, in which I characterized TIF districts as “a confusing arrangement that hides…

  • Carlos Mayans addresses state and local issues

    Last Friday immediate past Wichita mayor Carlos Mayans addressed members and guests of the Wichita Pachyderm Club. Speaking of his experience as a member of the Kansas House of Representatives, Mayans said that Kansas state spending must be brought under control. Having served under governors from both parties, he said that Republicans spend as much…

  • Wichita planning firm hopefuls make pitch

    This past Tuesday and Wednesday, the four planning firms that were selected as finalists for the master plan for the revitalization of downtown Wichita made their public presentations.

  • Wichita’s redevelopment role model needs scrutiny

    On the City of Wichita’s cable channel 7, Kansas City’s Power & Light District is presented as a model for the revitalization of downtown Wichita. Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer sees this district as Wichita’s competition. So yesterday I went to take a look for myself. And I agree with the mayor. It’s a neat place.…

  • Someone in California understands TIF

    In California, they’re called redevelopment districts. In Kansas, we call them tax increment financing or TIF districts. By either name, they provide a way to channel money to politically favored developers.