Mayor Hexom: TIFs for Everybody!

The Madison City Commission gave unanimous approval Monday night to the 63% increase in the debt it will take on to support Randy Schaefer's tax increment finance district. Local businessman John Hess attended the meeting to voice his disapproval of what looks to him like a handout to one specially chosen developer that gives that developer an unfair market advantage.

Mayor Gene Hexom apparently sees no unfairness in the TIF district. "The same opportunity exists for you, John, if you want to do it," the mayor told Hess at the meeting.

I think you missed the point, Mayor Hexom. Hess is making the argument that the city shouldn't be offering this "opportunity" to anyone in the first place. Certainly any of us with business interests in Madison could apply for a TIF to support our hopeful building projects. But would the city really finance every applicant? The city does have a debt limit (which we are $330,500 closer to now). Surely it would have to sort the good from the bad, pick some projects over others. And if the city can identify some private development projects, like Grant Circle, as more beneficial than to the city than others, woldn't those superior projects already enjoy the competitive advantage they need in the free market to succeed without tax subsidies?

Furthermore, Mayor Hexom seems ignorant of the fact that the TIF "opportunity" may not be available to John Hess. Mr. Hess owns some residential properties around town, but state law prohibits the use of TIF notes for strictly residential development. As I understand it. the only reason Randy Schaefer qualifies for this handout is that he happens to have a strip mall next to the proposed development, and his lawyer made sure the boundaries of the TIF district included that commercial property.

So for Mayor Hexom to say this "opportunity" exists for any interested developer is no more than technically correct: Hess could get a TIF district, if he owned a commercial property right next to a planned residential development, if he gets his bid in before the other developers swamp the city with requests and gobble up the 10% of citywide assessed value allowed for TIFs...

...and if John Hess wanted a government handout in the first place. John Hess and most businesspeople don't want a handout: they want a level playing field where their goods and services stand or fall on their own merits, without subsidy, and without having their own tax dollars going to help their competitors.