TIF Study Commission Off To Rollicking Good Start

You simply must wonder what wrong turn your life took when you find yourself energized by the geeky, wonky, TIF-er-ific lecture/discussion that happened at last night's opening TIF Study Commission meeting.  That is the situation I find myself in this morning.

WCTY, our government channel was present, capturing it all for your viewing pleasure.  As of this moment, it has not been posted, but I'll post a link as soon as I see it go up. [Edited to add link to the March 27 meeting - click here]

The TIF Study Commission falls out of City-County Council Prop 70, which set its composition and broad agenda.  On the panel are Councillor Ryan Vaughn, Controller Jeff Spaulding, Councillors Steve Talley and Brian Mahern, Auditor Billie Breaux, Bond Bank Executive Director Deron Kintner, MDC President Ed Mahern, and State Senator Bill Crawford.  Kintner was absent last night and sent a 'proxy', but I am afraid I did not get her name.

Missing last night was the taxpayer perspective, which left me squirming in my seat and my head flooded with my own internal comments.

Much information was thrown out there.  Bruce Donaldson, Attorney with Barnes & Thornburg, gave a overview of what the law allows TIF to be set up for and how TIF funds can be spent as well as the process whereby a TIF district is legally established.  Deputy Mayor Michael Huber was up next, going through the TIF philosophy of the Ballard administration.  Jeff Spaulding joined in for more of the administration's perspective on why use a TIF over other means of economic development.  Taking up the rear and pretty much rushed due to the late hour, was the Director of the Department of Metropolitan Development, Maury Plambeck.  Plambeck went through examples of the variety of TIF districts we have in Indy.

More detail is assured for future meetings.  So, let your geek flag fly !

Here are some of my observations from the cheap seats.

Billie Breaux brought up one of the great points last night - since you can create TIF districts to help spark redevelopment or for general economic development - why do we seem to be doing mostly the latter?  This really struck me as pertinent.  There is evidence that using TIF for economic development only moves economic development from where it would occur organically, to a location of the government's choosing and profits a developer of the government's choosing.  It does not accomplish much more.  But, trying to turn around a truly blighted area, is a different matter.  We can identify and prioritize, if you will, the areas most in need of a catalyst to improve a blighted area.  For the rest, we all want development in our neighborhoods, and prioritizing is more open to political interpretation.

I mentioned it earlier and it bears repeating, missing was the taxpayer perspective.  A number of platitudes were uttered last night that we have all heard before.  They are the 'promises' of TIF districts that do not necessarily come to fruition and for which TIFs are not necessarily the best approach. 

Spaulding mentioned "a rising tide lifts all boats" - that is true up to a point.  The never ending TIF district, however, has built around it an imaginary retaining wall - so the 'tide' cannot escape to outside areas to lift the 'boats' found there.  Huber opined that expanding the consolidated downtown TIF to nearby neighborhoods is way to share the wealth within that district.  I say, pay off the bonds, dissolve that TIF and let us all partake in the wealth.

On the same topic, Huber said that the development in a TIF would not have happened without the TIF, so it benefits all taxpayers.  While that is debatable on its face, by ending a TIF you would definitely help all taxpayers.  It might be a few dollars per taxpayer, but the aggregate it stunning.  The TIF districts in  Marion County take in over $100 million a year in property tax revenue.  If those TIF districts were retired, it would set off some critical dominoes.  First, the tax rates throughout the County would drop.  This makes Indy more attractive to homeowners and business owners alike.  It also means that fewer people hit the property tax caps.  When fewer people hit the tax caps, more money flows to the taxing units like the schools, the library, IndyGo, and the City.  When more money flows to the taxing units, more services or higher quality services can be provided.  This increases the quality of life in Indy, again improving the attraction of our city for people to live and work.  And, lets not overlook the impact on the taxpayers for those property tax savings.  For some, it means a better chance to keep their homes or business, and for others it is disposable money left in their pockets that can be spent on restaurants or new equipment or new cars, etc, etc, etc.  Retiring TIF districts can fulfill one of the promises made when the TIF was created - that it will benefit everyone.  When you do not retire the TIF, it only benefits those within the district, since the rest of us are footing the bill for the necessary public services that they still enjoy but do not pay for.

Mentioned by Donaldson was the idea that the tax revenue coming from a TIF district before day 1 of the district, will continue to flow to the schools and library, etc, after the TIF is formed.  This is called the 'base'.  He noted one readjustment as the tax caps were initiated that allowed a new calculation for the 'base' of our TIF districts, so that the new laws would not impede the City's ability to pay off existing bonds.  He did not mention that this readjustment is done annually.  I have blogged on the base and the annual calculations that the Auditor must submit before (see "TIF Districts - Who Knew The Base Could Drop?") .  From 2010 to 2011, these re-calculations caused $43 million in property value to be moved from the base, into the TIF revenue.  That was likely due to the drop in property values caused by the bursting housing bubble and recession.  But, if you look at the forms, there is no way that the value will be returned to the base once the recession is over.  The forms leave you with a choice - either stick with the same base as last year, or let it drop to recover more money to pay the bonds of the TIF district.

So, dear reader, if you've gotten this far, I thank you for your perseverance.  Its geeky, nerdy, wonkish stuff to be sure.  But, TIFs can be a promise for a better future, or a drain on the rest of us, or a slush fund, or all simultaneously.  As taxpayers, as citizens of a City we all want the best for, we owe it to ourselves to get at least ankle deep in the topic and lend our guidance to our elected officials as they try to navigate the best course for TIFs in Indianapolis.

First meeting of TIF Study Commission is tonight

The first meeting of the TIF Study Commission is tonight, March 29.  The meeting should run from 7 to 8:30 pm.  It will be held in the Community Room (#101) of the Illinois Fall Creek (IFC) Building (50 West Fall Creek Parkway North Drive) on the Ivy Tech campus that is on the north side of Fall Creek and west of Meridian Street.  Parking is available behind (north of the building) in the parking lot off of Capitol and 26th Streets.
The agenda is on page 3 of the pdf found on the Council's website (click here)

Here is a Google map - the IFC building is just west of the "A" marker:

View Larger Map

Frank Straub - The Timex Public Safety Director

I admit I only saw part of last night's marathon Public Safety committee grilling of Director Frank Straub live last night and viewed about an hour of the public comments this morning.  Today's IndyStar piece by Jon Murray focuses less on the meeting than a new direction for policing in Indianapolis (see "Straub plan concentrates IMPD patrols in Indy's most troubled areas").

I continue to believe that Indy needs new direction for its police department, but I am outside of my knowledge base to fully understand if Straub is the right man for the job or not.  I suspect most citizens are in the same boat as I.  I also hear more backlash because Straub is an outsider than any other point of critique.  I continue to support an outsider to lead our public safety.

I remember every few months before Straub was appointed, some police officer or a couple, were arrested for corruption or accused of brutality.  That parade should have given pause to all of us who want their protection, not their abuse of power.  I suspect nearly every other city would have had an investigation to see just how extensive that corruption was.  We did not.  So, I was content with bringing in an 'outsider' who would not be involved in the cliques that always operate in any human endeavor.

The arrest of officers and misconduct of officers has slowed considerably.  The best practices from other parts of the US are being brought here to help make IMPD more effective.  And, isn't that what we want?

Straub has some demerits on furnishing his office when the money could be better spent, and most recently claiming a budget deficit so enormous that stations would have to go dark - a matter that now is said to be under control, instead - and he is involved in poor relationships with key community leaders both inside policing and outside. 

With all of this, isn't it curious that IFD, which has not been a focus for reform, has also avoided the friction that centers around Straub when IMPD is mentioned?

I know most public commentary will be against Straub.  But, I am going to go against the grain here and stick with him.  Not because Straub is perfect, but because he has brought about some changes in IMPD that we have needed. 

Fox 59's Heather MacWilliams Carries Decatur's Story

Heather MacWilliams, Fox 59 reporter, did an excellent job reporting on the impacts of the Airport's un-American attempt to shut down a legal private business on private property.  She interviewed four of us yesterday; Bob Cockrum, Chip Pierson, Eldon Rasmussen, and me.  Click the hyperlink above to view the broadcast version and full text.

The Decatur Township Civic Council has taken a position in opposition to the Airport's lawsuit that seeks to overturn the MDC approval of the Fast Park project.  Three representatives of the Civic Council, Chip Pierson, Paul Fox, and I, attended Friday's Airport Board meeting to convey exactly why we took that position.  I was given 5 minutes to make our case.  MacWilliams was in attendence and followed up to hear more from our group.

Decatur has suffered from being a neighbor of the Airport all these years.  And, as Bob Cockrum put it, "Enough is enough".

All Americans should be concerned with the Airport's attempt to kill a legal business that customarily locates next to airports simply because it might cut into their profits and simply because they have deep pockets with which to accomplish a long drawn out and expensive legal battle.  Their role is to provide aviation infrastructure, period.  And it is abhorrently un-American, anti-capitalistic, and anti-economic development, for government to say what legal, upstanding business can and cannot be built on legally zoned private property.

As MacWilliams' reported:

Decatur Township residents are fighting a lawsuit the Indianapolis International Airport has filed to block a privately owned parking lot at Ameriplex just south of Interstate 70.

"All we want to do is to be able to park some cars out here while people go to the airport," said Bob Cockrum, Decatur Township resident.Sounds simple enough but the Indianapolis Airport Authority wants it stopped.

"We're just trying to do what we think is in the best interest for the airport and the community," said Michael Wells, IAA President.

Well said filling in that spot would be in direct competition of the airport. But residents said without it, they have nothing.

"We don't have a place to buy a new book, a new pair of shoes or shirt in our entire township," said Pat Anderson, Decatur Township Land Use Chairperson.

By attracting those businesses, Anderson said it will bring in approximately $500,000 in property taxes they so desperately need.

"For us it's dollars and cents. It's our tax base. It's our future. It's trying to get those basics for our people," she said.

People like Eldon Rasmussen who has lived next to the vacant land since 1969.

"We'd appreciate getting some finer establishments in," he said.

However, he said, since anything put there could be considered direct competition for the airport, where does it end?

"Are they going to oppose us to put in a filling station because they are going to put in a filling station on airport property," Cockrum asked. "Enough is enough."

Decatur Township Parks Chairman Chip Pierson believes it all comes down to money.

"That's what it boils down to is their greed and they want to shut out competition," Pierson said.

The matter is going before a Marion County Judge. A hearing date has not yet been scheduled, but the residents are ready.

"We're not backing off. The airport has crossed a major line and they've just gone too far for us," said Anderson

If you haven't done so already, would you please visit MacWilliams' report and 'recommend' it and 'share' it on social media. We need to get our story out to as wide an audience as we can. Thank you in advance.

City-County Council Meets Tonight

The City-County Council meets tonight.  The one agenda item that caught my eye is Prop 68, which would change who gets to appoint members of the IMPD and the IFD merit boards to include the Council.  This proposal was sent back to committee last meeting so that the total number of members could be reduced from the original draft.  The intent certainly is a good one, but the meat of the discussion in the committee was the legality of the change, as State law sets limits that are open to interpretation.  From the March 7 Public Safety committee meeting, it almost seems like a 'damned if you do and damned if you don't' situation.  It appears that the current composition of the IMPD merit board may not be consistent with State law, much less the one proposed by Prop 68.

Being introduced tonight are a bevy of Mayoral appointments to head his Departments.  Being reappointed are Olgen Williams, Michael Huber, Maury Plambeck, Rick Powers, and Frank Straub.  New appointments are Jason Klath to the newly created Deputy Mayor of Education, John Williams for Parks, and Lori Miser for DPW.

Also being introduced is a smoking ban (Prop 136) - now containing compromise language on private clubs.

Mayor Removes Airport Director - Curiously Says Its About Economic Development

Anyone who had any reservations accepting the idea that nothing happens at the airport that the Mayor does not want to happen, need only look at the series of events that lead to the 'resignation' of John Clark as the Indianapolis Airport's Executive Director.

I first saw the news that Clark was out over at Gary Welsh's Advance Indiana blog, then the IBJ's news alert started circulating, and this morning I read more about it in the Indy Star.

Here are the dominoes.

December 16 - Michael Stayton, former President of the Airport Authority Board, announces he will step down, even though he still has two years left on his term.

December 31 - Mayor Ballard appoints Mike Wells to fill out the final two years of Stayton's term.

January 20 - Mike Wells elected President of the Airport Board at his first board meeting of this appointment.

March 10 - news reports suddenly appear of another year, more expensive trips abroad for John Clark and his top deputies.  Curiously, Mike Wells keeps using the word "I" instead of "we" or "the Board" in his statements that changes are coming.  For instance, the IBJ quotes him as saying "I'm making major changes to the travel policy".

March 19 - Wells announces immediate departure of Clark as Director.  Mayor Ballard is quoted as saying

"What I’m mostly concerned about out there is the economic development aspect of the airport,” said Mayor Ballard. "I think that’s been slow, much slower than I would have expected.

"It may have been the recession. It may have been all the economic downturn but I want to have more plans for development out there. That’s what I’m mostly focused on."

Those of you who wanted to blame Clark for announcing the cancellation of collective bargaining at the airport, which was delayed for about a month so candidate Ballard could bask in the light of a recent union endorsement - blame Ballard instead.  (see "Is Indy Airport Playing Politics For Ballard?")

Those of you who wanted to blame Clark for removing art from the airport in order to put up a garish electronic advertising screen, remember the timing.  On August 9, the removal is announced.  On August 24, Mayor Ballard swoops in to save the day.  Then, on November 30, right after the election, the art is removed.  Just in time for the 'holiday travel' season and the Super Bowl - where ads just might fetch a pretty penny.

Yes, anything the airport does leads directly back to Mayor Ballard - its a lesson John Clark has learned and its a lesson the public needs to learn.

Indianapolis Airport Stomps On Free Enterprise With Court Action

Airports are governmental units that oversee aviation infrastructure in this Country.  But, in the most un-American, anti-capitalism, move I can think of, the Indianapolis International Airport has decided to overreach that role and try to kill private development on privately owned land that is a compatible use - but one that poses a few dollars of competition to the airport.  Our airport is asking the Courts to overturn the recent MDC decision to modify the legally established zoning within Ameriplex that would permit the development of a Fast Park Ride & Relax facility (see "Yesterday's Zoning Case - Its About Far More Than a Parking Facility").

I got a copy of the document the airport filed with the Courts on Wednesday and uploaded it to Google Docs in three sections (Court Filing A ---  Court Filing B ---- Court Filing C).

I read the filing late yesterday afternoon and evening and thought I would wait until tomorrow morning to pen this blog entry.  But, I find my anger at my own government to be so great, that I sit here in my living room penning this in the wee hours of the morning instead.

Adding insult to injury, the airport hired zoning attorney Brian Tuohy to flash this figurative middle finger to the community.  Tuohy has been working to kill the Fast Park project for months for his previous paying customer - the Indy (really Plainfield) Park Ride & Fly facility west of the airport.  Doubtlessly laughing all the way to the bank, this national chain of unimaginative parking lots now has our airport covering its bills; taking up their effort to kill off competition.

The filing is a sing-song repetition of zoning minutia that seems written for the appreciation of a near catatonic person rocking in a corner.  It mystifies me how a zoning attorney of so many years of experience as Tuohy, could include so many items that misstate the actual facts about the zoning within Ameriplex and the MDC's authority to modify the site plan associated with that zoning; zoning, by the way, that was legally and undisputedly established for this particular block in 2008.  The nut of the airport and Tuohy's argument is that the MDC cannot modify a legally established zoning category called 'commercial special' or 'CS' for short.

For those who have been so lucky in life as to not be familiar with the geeky aspects of zoning in Marion County, CS is a common zoning category for industrial parks and strip malls.  It was designed to allow flexibility in the design of what is on the ground and what will be developed as a mixture of intensities and types of businesses.  This court filing attempts to kill off airport competition from the private sector on private property, and they do not care that they put all CS zoned property in Marion County at risk in the process.  Such is the unmitigated greed of our own government here in Indianapolis.

The airport claims that they stand to be harmed by the loss of parking revenue.  The 800 pound gorilla, whose ONLY authority is to provide aviation infrastructure, now wants to stop an off airport parking facility that the airport estimates will cut into the airport's profits by about $4 million a year.  While I use the word 'profits', it is really that the airport wants to be able to lower what it charges the airlines to use the taxpayer provided aviation infrastructure.  In a worse case scenario, it MIGHT cost each passenger using the airport one extra dollar for a round trip ticket.  That scenario ignores the fact that a huge fraction of the airport's use of the runways is cargo, not passenger, flights.  It also ignores the fact that the airport is growing and much of the Fast Park business will come from that expansion; perhaps shaving a miniscule degree off the arc of that growth curve, not actually cutting the dollars now taken in by the airport from those passengers who park their car on airport property.

Airports all over the country have off airport parking.  I even Googled Moscow's airport once, and they have off airport parking that provides an option to the flying public.  This attack on free enterprise - this overreach by government - this expansion beyond its mandate - this attack on my home community and all of central Indiana - comes ironically from a Republican President of the Airport Board who is a developer himself.  Mike Wells is an owner of REI, which develops large properties all over the area, many of which must use the CS zoning designation.  He is so eager to exact this revenge on the taxpayers and free enterprise, that he is willing to put his own developments at risk.

I'll go into all of the zoning techno-geek layers in future postings.  But for now, know that a major precedent is being set here in Indianapolis.  That is the unilateral declaration of a monopoly by our government for a business that is compatible with the function of providing aviation infrastructure, but which does not require the government to be provided.  It is an attack on our capitalist system that even the Russians do not deem necessary.