Gahan inks emergency decree establishing local Democratic Party's parade float as nation's first mobile TIF area.

A Tax Increment Financing (TIF) primer, noting TIF's chumminess with insider corruption, and certain grassroots alternatives to big ticket glitz.

Tax Increment Financing (TIF) came up a lot when I ran for mayor in 2015, so much so that the Bookseller created a paper for consultation by our team.

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A Baylor Paper on Tax Increment Financing

HISTORY: Tax Increment Financing, commonly known as T.I.F., is a method created by the legislature that allows a city to invest borrowed money in the hopes that the investment will increase property values in a specific geographic area. To the extent that property values do increase, the city may use those new tax dollars to retire its debt on that investment.

TIF areas have expiration dates. Other taxing entities are barred from collecting taxes on the increased value, if any, until the expiration of the TIF area.

PREMISE: Cities are severely limited in how rapidly they can grow their revenues, which are based largely on the assessed value of properties within the city limits. Cities have no control over assessments and their revenues are capped by annual growth limits. Thus, tax increment financing is one way to make ambitious, if speculative, investments in the future without waiting for growth.

But TIF-ability is an asset that must be carefully used and its benefits must be calculable. The Gahan administration has been irresponsible in that respect and has used the T.I.F. function more like a piggy bank or a blue-sky wish list. Current officials won’t be around when the bills have to be paid.

PROPOSAL: I’ll conduct an immediate audit of our T.I.F. programs and will publicly report to the citizens of New Albany the whos, whats, whens, whys, and wheres regarding them.

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I haven't asked Democratic mayoral candidate David White yet, but I strongly suspect his view of TIF programs and the abusive tendencies of their local application corresponds with the preceding. However, I can state with certainty that White fully understands the challenge to future municipal solvency posed by serial TIF misuse. He'd rather face up to it than kick the can further down the high-maintenance-cost road.

As an aside, I cannot recall a time when 3rd district councilman Greg Phipps girded up to disagree with current Anchor Office occupant Jeff Gahan's addiction to TIF areas as de facto credit cards intended to be pumped dry so as to enable bright shiny "piggy bank" and "blue sky" wish lists, while leaving the burden of debt management to be left for our grandchildren.

Yesterday I spoke of the no-gimmicks Strong Towns platform as a "third way" for New Albany.

+ Stop valuing efficiency and start valuing resilience;
+ Stop betting our futures on huge, irreversible projects, and taking small, incremental steps and iterating based on what we learn;
+ Stop fearing change and start embracing a process of continuous adaptation;
+ Stop building our world based on abstract theories, and start building it based on how our places actually work and what our neighbors actually need today;
+ Stop obsessing about future growth and start obsessing about our current finances.

For more about TIF's positives and negatives, read this article from the Strong Towns Knowledge Base. It's also worth contemplating this: How much of Gahan's pay-to-play campaign finance enhancement would be possible without the gravy generated by TIF projects? He may be corrupt, but he's no fool when it comes to undercover math.

Your Questions Answered: Is TIF Always Bad? by Jacob Moses

 ... This week’s question: Is TIF always bad?

Tax increment financing (TIF) is a financing method used by local governments, often to redevelop blighted or disinvested areas where market-rate development is seen as unprofitable without assistance. Under a TIF agreement, a local government incentivizes a developer to work in a designated geographic area (called a TIF district) by subsidizing a portion of the development costs. The subsidy may help pay the up-front cost of either private development or associated public infrastructure. The city raises the money by selling bonds to investors, and the bonds are gradually paid back out of increased property taxes over the next 20 or 30 years.

As redevelopment causes the value of the property to increase, more property taxes can be collected from within the TIF district. Rather than adding these to the city’s general budget, any additional tax revenues above the amount paid at the time the TIF was established are set aside in a special fund. That fund is reserved for gradually paying back the initial TIF bonds. Once the TIF is paid off, local governments can use the future property taxes for anything—road maintenance, schools, etc.

Questions to ask, and alternatives to be considered.

The intention behind TIF is not always bad—but here is a list of questions you can ask yourself or your elected officials to discover if TIF is best for your city’s or town’s financial health.

Have you considered incremental development?
Incremental development means making small bets on many small projects over a broad area over a long period of time. Because local governments don’t have the ability to guarantee the future success of a project, they should consider growing incrementally.

Instead of constructing a rail line, you start with a shuttle bus; instead of building an apartment complex, you start with a duplex.

This same philosophy applies to TIF districts, which are often used to jump-start large scale redevelopment projects, and justified on the basis that no such mega-project would have been viable without TIF. But should the city first consider a smaller investment to develop the area? Could they invest in helping the existing local grocery meet its needs? Could they practice economic gardening and seek to help hardworking, entrepreneurial residents of the area start and grow companies? Could they make sidewalk and traffic-calming improvements that improve street safety and make a business district more walkable and lively?

What would it take to gradually bring up the value of existing properties instead of doing full-scale redevelopment?

We know these alternative solutions aren’t as shiny and new as the proposed, TIF-funded megaproject. However, because they are small bets, local governments can preserve their resilience if they don’t succeed.

Is the public losing anything?
Before local government can approve a project for TIF, they must ensure the project passes the “but for” test: but for the TIF subsidy, the development wouldn’t happen.

If that’s true, then the TIF is jumpstarting development but the public isn’t losing anything, because the money to pay off the initial TIF subsidy is coming from property taxes that otherwise wouldn’t have been collected at all.

The problem, however, is that it’s challenging to actually assess that “but for” test in practice, meaning lots of projects that get TIF money probably don’t pass it. That means TIF can end up starving the local government’s general fund—which pays for most city services—because the property taxes are going to the TIF district instead.

Before approving projects for TIF, it’s essential that local governments—to the best of their ability—ensure that the TIF money is going to truly necessary, value-creating projects that can’t happen any other way, and not to subsidize development that could have been achieved by another means.

Excellent point: "Louisville should not spend tens of millions for a soccer stadium unless it creates better jobs."

Last evening the first step was taken toward a soccer stadium in Louisville.

The Fischer administration made a successful appeal to council members Tuesday saying the public-private partnership, which would erect a 10,000-seat facility, is a good use of taxpayer money that will put acres of underused land to good use.

After a nearly two-hour discussion in the council's Budget Committee, members voted 4-1 to approve the bond.

Investors said they need to move swiftly on a new home field to stay in the professional United Soccer League. Since its inception three years ago, Louisville City FC has played at the Louisville Slugger Field baseball stadium.

Earlier there was an insightful commentary in which the authors refrained from opposing the pump-priming required to build a soccer stadium, but rather explored the implications of it, and suggested positive outcomes of the sort that Greg Fischer rarely acknowledges.

This is precisely the thinking needed whenever local officials propose tethering development to TIF zones. For instance, the jobs generated by New Albany's aquatic center are seasonal and low-paying.

Shouldn't the benefits be more expansive than that?

Louisville should not spend tens of millions for a soccer stadium unless it creates better jobs, by Richard Becker and Bryan Trafford (Insider Louisville)

Richard Becker is co-chair of Kentucky Jobs With Justice. Bryan Trafford is on the executive committee of Jobs With Justice, works at an area casino, and is a member of Teamsters Local 89.

To move forward, Louisville needs to create more jobs that pay enough to support a family. Right now, too many working families in our city feel like they are falling behind, no matter how hard they work. A low-wage floor holds down household spending power, which holds back our local economy.

As Louisville grows and puts taxpayer money into new development projects, our elected representatives should make choices that help paychecks get bigger and neighborhoods get stronger across the city.

Metro Louisville government has a chance to get this right with a major new project. The owners of Louisville City Football Club want as much as $60 million in state and local taxpayer money to help build a stadium, hotel, offices and retail stores on a parcel of land near Butchertown.

The owners of the team want Louisville taxpayers to get a $30 million loan to buy the land where they would own and operate the development. The owners apparently also plan to ask for approximately $30 million in additional taxpayer funding from the state through a “Tax Increment Funding” financing mechanism.

The development has been portrayed as a done deal, with the team saying it expects Metro Council to rush to a vote in two weeks.

But so far, there has been almost no public discussion about whether spending so much of our money on this project will help raise wages and improve the quality of jobs in our city. The members of Metro Council need to slow down, ask questions, and find ways to use this kind of major investment to create better jobs.

Monday's best social media comment about the Breakwater fire.

This one, from KLB:

"Too bad the developers got a massive TIF handout and didn't pay into any of the fire protection they got."

Of course, we're speaking of the the Saturday conflagration.

The Breakwater fire: Luckily there were no injuries, but are we REALLY sure the deity favors subsidized luxury?

By afternoon yesterday, the Elm Street side of the apartment complex had completely disappeared. As we await the implications of rebuilding, which the Green Mouse predicts will include a reformat of the phase-in of the downtown grid project, as streets must be kept nice and wide to facilitate fresh new matchsticks being trucked to the site, have you noticed that the Indy developer was lightning fast in assuring all and sundry that the complex was built to code?

“Fortunately, as the B building was not yet complete and unoccupied, no one was injured,” Michael Collins, Regional Property Manager for Flaherty & Collins Properties said. “We’re working to determine what caused the fire. There were no sprinklers on, which was to code because the building was incomplete and had not yet been issued a certificate of occupancy.”

Has someone suggested it wasn't?

Perhaps the mayor will have something coherent to add to all this (Vegas, do we have odds?), having been silent since Saturday morning.

Let's be charitable. After all, Team Gahan needs time to nurse the inevitable hangover from a weekend spent problem-drinking Bud Light Lime. The unfortunate Breakwater fire is the first major crisis of the current management's tenure, and as the Academy Awards demonstrated, there are those times when things are not as they seem.

The latest on HB 1131: Amended and up for a vote on Tuesday morning.

House Bill 1131 is authored by Rep. Ed Clere, and co-authored by Rep. Anthony Cook and Rep. Steven Stemler, and the legislation deals primarily with appointments to local boards and commissions.

HB 1131 has been amended, and is up for a vote on Tuesday in the House Government and Regulatory Reform Committee. Following is an overview of the bill -- though note that the amendment does not change the housing authority provision.

Provides that if the executive or fiscal body of a municipality does not fill a vacancy in the municipal housing authority before the 61st day after the vacancy occurs, the remaining members of the housing authority shall fill the vacancy. Provides that the remaining members are authorized to fill the vacancy even if the number of remaining members is not sufficient for a quorum. Provides that an individual who is acting as a member of a housing authority 60 days after the expiration of the individual's term as a member of the housing authority may continue to act as a member for purposes of filling the vacancy.

Here is a recap.

1. Commission membership and appointments

Both municipal and county redevelopment commissions will consist of seven members. Under current law, municipal redevelopment commissions consist of five members, and county redevelopment commissions may have either five or seven members.

The executive will continue to appoint three members (no more than two of one party), and the council will continue to appoint two members (one of each party). The political balance is new.

There will be one school board appointee. If more than one school corporation serves the municipality or county, the school board with the most members who live in the municipality or county will make the appointment. The appointee must live in the municipality or county.

The seventh member will be appointed by the council, upon a recommendation from the local LEDO.

2. Projects outside a TIF district

If revenue from a TIF district is used to fund projects outside the TIF district, the redevelopment commission will have to certify that the project will benefit the TIF district and result in the creation of private sector jobs.

3. Annual report

The Department of Local Government Finance will produce an annual report showing the effect of TIF on circuit breaker losses for each taxing district in a county. It will illustrate the circuit breaker change that would occur without TIF, and with 10 percent, 20 percent and 30 percent reductions in TIF assessed valuation (AV).

4. County council review

If the report shows extreme TIF pressure on circuit breakers, the council may require release of up to 20 percent of TIF AV, subject to debt service reserves. Extreme pressure is defined as a case in which releasing 20 percent of TIF AV would produce more than half of the amount of circuit breaker relief resulting from releasing 10 percent of TIF AV.

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PROPOSED AMENDMENT ... HB 1131 # 5

DIGEST

Redevelopment commissions. Makes the following changes regarding commission membership: (1) Requires a county or municipal redevelopment commission (commission) to consist of seven members. (Under current law, a municipal commission must be five members, a county commission must be five members or seven members). (2) Requires one member to be appointed to a commission upon the recommendation of the local economic development organization (LEDO) of the territory served by the commission, or upon the joint recommendation by all LEDOS serving the territory within the jurisdiction of the commission. (3) Establishes political party membership requirements for some appointments. (4) Requires municipal and county commission members to reside within the territory under the jurisdiction of the commission. Provides that a member serving on a commission on June 30, 2017, that does not satisfy the residency or party membership requirements continues to serve out the member's unexpired term. Requires the commission to comply with these requirements when appointing a successor member. Provides that allocated property tax proceeds may be expended for projects located outside a redevelopment district only if the commission adopts a declaratory resolution that finds that the expenditures: (1) will directly benefit the redevelopment district; and (2) will result in the creation of jobs in the private sector. Provides that the county council of a county in which a redevelopment authority is located may require redistribution to taxing units of up to 20% of the assessed value that is allocated to allocation areas if, when considering a reduction in the allocation in allocation areas from 10% to 20%, the amount of the reduction in losses due to the circuit breaker credits is exceeded by more than fifty percent (50%). Provides, however, that the county council may not make a redistribution to taxing units if: (1) the redistribution would effect debt service; or (2) there is no loss that meets the criteria for a distribution that is to a unit other than the municipality in which the allocation area is located, or a special service district that is wholly located within the boundaries of the municipality that established the allocation area. Requires the department of local government finance (DLGF) to annually prepare a report for each taxing unit that includes a calculation of the following: (1) The total property tax levy from the assessed value in the taxing unit and the amount of loss due to the circuit breaker credits. (2) The total property tax proceeds from the assessed value that exceeds the base assessed value in all allocation areas established within the taxing unit. (3) The effect, if any, on the amount of the tax levy or proceeds and the credit for excessive property taxes under IC 6-1.1-20.6 for the taxing unit and for the allocation areas if the allocation and distribution of tax proceeds in the allocation areas were: (A) eliminated; (B) reduced by 10%; (C) reduced by 20%; or (D) reduced by 30%. Requires the DLGF to: (1) post the report on the DLGF web site; and (2) file the report with the governor and the general assembly.

Extremely rare sighting of infill construction WITHOUT massive TIF subsidies.

How is it possible?

And how will Team Gahan claim credit?

But seriously, let's hope Matt Chalfant decided to ask for his cut of the Flaherty Collins Double Secret Sewer Tap-In Waiver pie.

Fire station bidding questions, Part Three: A $1.5 million sale to enable a $2.75 million spending orgy.

Part One
Part Two

In 2014, against a backdrop of negotiations with Kroger largely hidden from public view, and in concert with the $9 million TIF-funded water park located nearby, City Hall elected to sell a youthful fire station for demolition and build a new one. Public discussion was non-existent.

Kroger paid $1.5 million for the 22-year-old station, and the new station cost $2.2 million. As the Courier-Journal explained, these moves were part of a larger deal.

New Albany officials said previously they intend to use a $5 million bank note to pay for the firehouse construction and improvements to two other firehouses. They’ll use proceeds from the Kroger transaction, as well as EDIT, or economic development income taxes, and TIF, tax-increment financing, revenues to repay the loan ...

Looking at Redevelopment Commission minutes 2012 and 2013, we find that minutes from the latter half of 2013 are entirely missing from the city's web site. What isn't mentioned in those minutes which are available for viewing is the bidding process for the fire station rebuild and accompanying upgrades. Rather, there is a reference to a contract with Axis Architecture and Interiors for $4,275,000.

In short, we sold an asset for $1.5 million, and immediately embarked upon a $2.75 million spending free.

My question: Why did the city sell itself short on the Kroger negotiations?

Not only was very little of this process transparent and the fire station swap an uneven transaction for the city, but we might have played this hand far better, leveraging Kroger's expansion needs with the Plaza's owner and addressing sore points -- the derelict Hardee's building that causes insomnia for Banker Blair, and notoriously bad traffic conditions at the State Street entrance that lacks a stop light.

Why did Jeff Gahan's economic "development" minions consistently undervalue the city's stake in these backroom deals?

Probably because for David Duggins, any negotiating position not specifically constructed to dispense corporate welfare largess at th city's expense threatens to be a deal-breaker.

Ready for a change?

Fire station bidding questions, Part Two: I see the $4.25 million contract, but where are the bids?

Part One
Part Three

There are no minutes on the city's web site for Redevelopment Commission meetings during the last five months of 2013 (after 2 August 2013, and until the first meeting in January of 2014). Two other meetings appear to be missing, too.

However, there are a few relevant passages. First, from April 9, with notification that a special meeting of the RC would be required to discuss details of the new fire station.

Then, April 29, which has less to do with the issue at hand than an admission of future water park access problems owing to the city's inability to bridge a creek that's been flowing there for centuries prior to the advent of TIF bonding.

Finally, June 11. Apparently the special meeting has come and gone, because the $4.25 million contract with Axis is up for unanimous approval.

Rumors have circulated ever since of Jeff Gahan's minions bragging about their "loophole" to avoid the bidding process. If you know anything that might help us understand this, please write to me. Confidentiality is assured.

Fire station bidding questions, Part One: Missing Redevelopment Commission minutes, Kroger corporate welfare and fire stations.

Part Two
Part Three

I've been looking at Redevelopment Commission minutes for 2012 and 2013. Interestingly (ominously?), minutes from the last half of 2013 are entirely missing from the city's web site.

I'm seeing discussions about the Kroger "corporate welfare" land deals (to which Banker Blair remains closely attached; see * below), the Green Valley Road firehouse's demolition, and the rapid fire station rebuild on Daisy Lane.

What I'm not seeing is any reference to a bidding process for the fire station rebuild and accompanying upgrades -- just a contract with Axis Architecture and Interiors for $4,275,000.

Are details of the bidding process missing from the minutes?

As a first step to seeing how Jeff Gahan's minions consistently undervalued the city's stake in these backroom deals, here is Courier-Journal coverage from May, 2014.

Daisy Lane construction: Firehouse, then pool, by Grace Schneider

Gradually the pieces of a redevelopment deal are coming together for New Albany to open a new firehouse on West Daisy Lane and for Kroger Co. to get its New Albany Plaza expansion rolling.

City redevelopment director David Duggins told the redevelopment commission Tuesday that the city’s new firehouse on Daisy will open to the public June 9. Because the new $2.2 million station is substantially completed, firefighters already have begun moving in equipment and gear.

The move follows an agreement struck more than a year ago for Kroger to pay $1.5 million to the city for its 22-year-old firehouse and adjoining property on Green Valley Road, adjacent to its store to make way for a large renovation and expansion.

The parties are scheduled to close on the property May 29, later than expected because construction crews working on the new fire station were slowed by 25 days of bad weather, Duggins said.

New Albany officials said previously they intend to use a $5 million bank note to pay for the firehouse construction and improvements to two other firehouses. They’ll use proceeds from the Kroger transaction, as well as EDIT, or economic development income taxes, and TIF, tax-increment financing, revenues to repay the loan ...

 ... As for Kroger’s plans, the company hasn’t submitted design documents yet for the expansion, but officials have told New Albany they expect to build a new “lifestyle center,” similar to large marketplace stores opened in Ohio and South Carolina, with food products and other merchandise.

* As explained in these articles.

 CM Blair's bank, the State Street exurb, commercial dereliction, corporate welfare and non-transparency.

Let's go Krogering?: Does CM Blair's fixation with a boarded-up Hardee's have to do with gas pumps and corporate welfare?

Council meeting recap 1: State's a trashy chain-ridden asphalt nightmare, and this sole derelict Hardee's must go!

The last known photograph of me in a suit.

It is an indescribable honor to be recognized by Freedom of Speech.

I believe TIF bonds should be safe, legal and rare.

As for the suit, this photo shows what mine looks like. The photo was taken the last time I wore it, in 2009.

With stylish Che wallet and glass of red wine. 

It needs alteration, given that I've lost about 40 lbs since then. But I know where to do that, right Cisa?

It's just boilerplate to pay someone to make a profitable investment, right?

Yesterday we were breathlessly told to prepare for yet another apocalyptic weather event that never arrived. Out in search of flashlight batteries and cans of beans, I happened upon representatives of Flaherty Collins, loading the trunks of their cars with cases of champagne.

Sly Stone once observed a riot going on. In New Albany, we specialize in anointments.

Coyle site TIF abuse: "Because subsidizing wealthy, out of town developers is the only thing our economic development director knows how to do with our tax money."

There was a gently facetious comment posted about the preceding, and while normally I wouldn't repeat it, the sentiment is deserving of open refutation proportionate to the backroom greasings that have produced the Coyle site deal.

How dare them foreigners (from Indiana) invest in our town! Xenophobia is alive and well in some quarters.

If the investment "in our town" is credible (read: profitable), as developers like Matt Chalfant, Steve Resch, the Carters and others seem to think it is, then why must we in effect pay someone to invest in NA?

This is what we're doing with Flaherty Collins.

But couldn't these monies be used to augment the non-subsidized local investments already taking place, by developers working on their own, from no more than a profit incentive borne of risk and opportunity?

Didn't I read somewhere that this is the essence of the free market?

Perhaps there is more than the immediately obvious to "boilerplate" economic development strategies.

ON THE AVENUES: "Water on the brains: Much less for far more will keep us swimming in it."

ON THE AVENUES: "Water on the brains: Much less for far more will keep us swimming in it."

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

New Albany's River Run Family Water Park belatedly opened last week, and was formally dedicated yesterday by means of a mayoral re-election rally thinly disguised as a christening. By last night, several discussions were underway at Facebook and other social media sites as to the water park's value in a community context.

Memories are short, and the following was written by NAC co-editor Jeff Gillenwater. It was published here on May 20, 2013. Given that Jeff Gahan will be using the aquatics facility as a major component of his 2015 campaign platform, and depicting it as a precious gift bestowed upon loyal subjects, it seems only fitting to give over my column today to Gillenwater's matchless explanation of how Gahan might have claimed just as much credit for half the price -- because the money does indeed matter, whether Steve Sipes, Pat McLaughlin or any other Democratic functionary cares to discuss it or not, and they generally haven't.

This $9 million expenditure was not mentioned during Gahan's 2011 run for mayor, and once it was given the green light, there was no substantive public discussion of benefits versus cost.

Without such a discussion, how is the water park's ultimate value to be determined?

Answer: It isn't, and that's the whole point. In fact, River Run is a certified campaign issue in 2015, just not in the way Gahan assumes -- and Gillenwater explained why two whole years ago.

I'm delighted to let him do it again. Take it away, Jeff.

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Water on the brains: Much less for far more will keep us swimming in it.

Since the serious prospect of a new municipal swimming pool or aquatic center was made public in New Albany, several people, though not elected officials or most media types, have issued numerous, relevant questions.

Roger did a fine job, for instance, of asking how or why an aquatics-based project fits with quality of life justifications, particularly when more pressing quality issues, some of which are much less expensive to address and more costly not to, stand mostly ignored.

Likewise, Sam Schad and his group asked why, with such a huge expenditure, we can't at least get increased utility from such a facility if we're going to build it anyway without the sort of considerations Roger suggests.

Somewhere in-between the two, I mused that whether the expenditure would be worth it or not would depend largely on what was ultimately and comprehensively delivered-- hardly a profound concept but one too readily dismissed by too many current decision makers. Given the vast amount of money then proposed and now doubly approved, I foolishly held out hope that council voices would rightfully point out that, for the price, we should be able to produce an aquatic center and a competitive lap pool and the reclamation of our two-way streets and perhaps some other potential initiatives.

Why did/do I think that? Because, apparently unlike some voluntarily voiceless council members, I bothered with a smidgeon of research into how comparable cities have handled comparable situations.

Marion, Ohio, is one such city. Its population of just under 37,000 is almost exactly the same as New Albany's. Marion, too, had an aging pool - a very common predicament nationwide - in a setting of roughly the same land space as Camille Wright: one that needed either substantial rehabilitation or replacement if the city decided to maintain a facility at all.

Conversation in Marion was somewhat similar to ours here as well.  Like New Albany, there were discussions of the overall usefulness of such a facility and whether or not it would cash flow. Totally unlike New Albany, there was even legitimate debate about proposed costs. Finally, Marion's city council online.com/uncategorized/2011/06/council-overrides-veto-of-aquatic-center/">overrode a cost driven mayoral veto to build an aquatic center, depicted below via text and images from online.com/">Marion Online and the aquatic center's Facebook page. It opened last summer, 2012, and has since online.com/news/2013/03/marion-aquatic-center-earns-state-award/">won a state award for recreation facilities.

"The new center will feature heated water, Lazy River, Floating Lilly Pads, Zero-depth entry, 25 foot Racing Slides, a 6 foot Family Slide, a Water Play set with a bucket that dumps 150 gallons of water, 25 meter 6 lane pool with a high dive and low dive and a separate baby pool."

 

It indeed appears to be a very nice facility that's been well received by the community. 

Here's the rub: That debate about cost that led to both a mayoral veto and a council override? It was a fight over whether to spend $2.4 million or $3.5 million. The council favored the 3.5 and won. 

All the above- much of it strikingly familiar - was built within the past couple of years for less than half of even the most conservative cost estimate provided by the administration and approved by the council for New Albany's impending center. Assuming we're not purposefully overspending for nefarious political purposes, New Albany could have something very similar and $4 - 5.5 million left over to address other quality of life needs without spending any more than what's already been approved.

Making that possible, though, requires a majority of council members who think beyond mayoral and Estopinal suggestions and consider such basic, comparative due diligence a part of their job. In terms of what our council has thus far publicly offered up relative to aquatic center merits, the one direct comparison offered here - easily gleaned from about 30 minutes of individual research - unfortunately represents more than our council members have collectively put forth over several months. 

The quantity and quality of discourse around numerous "park" projects has been so low and the prices so high that, if I didn't know some of the folks involved personally, I'd probably just assume they were receiving substantial kickbacks for such a dubious (lack of) effort. I don't believe that, but the lack of diligence has been egregious enough to make it a plausible explanation to fill an obvious void.

One would think (or at least I did) that the public embarrassment of a $750,000 downtown pocket park with less utility and flexibility than a $200,000 park could've offered and/or tens of thousands so casually given to a Bicentennial Commission who clearly told council members they had "no idea" how the money would be used before being granted funding should have been sufficient cause for a slightly more thoughtful approach in considering the aquatics expenditure. But, then, I already admitted to being foolishly optimistic.

If any of the council "yes" voters would like to explain exactly which portion of our proposed aquatic center justifies multiple, additional millions as compared to what we can plainly observe here, the floor is open. It's been open for months. Until any such rational, evidence-based explanation materializes, however, "rubber-stamp" criticisms will ring truer than usual for a group who, via the intelligence of its individual members, ought to know much better. 

As an overall experience, our current council group has in ways been even more frustrating than some of the lesser moments of the Kochert-led era that served as my introduction to New Albany politics. During that time, a distinct lack of intellectual capital coalesced with an abundance of insider bullying to render capacity so low as to substantially limit both expectations and actual potential. 

But that's not the case here. What we have now is an example of "won't" rather than "can't" in which acquiring council seats has somehow rendered usually talented people into an amorphous mass of counterproductive group decline. The sum is less than its parts. No one is consistently demonstrating their capacity for good questions, so we're settling for lousy, injudicious answers and losing badly.

So far, a bunch of really smart people have managed to haphazardly waste millions in public funding without so much as addressing some fundamental quality of life and prioritization issues. If such behavior continues unchecked by any number of council members quite capable of checking it, future councils and the city at large will have a much more difficult time responding to those issues as we try to dig ourselves out of holes already dug, some quite literally, at places like Bicentennial Park and the aquatics center. 

As a citizen and voter, I've always felt it important to extend at least some effort toward helping ensure that we elect as talented a group of leaders as possible. This council, however, with its inexplicable yet seemingly automatic brainpower off switch - apparently activated by the doors at city hall - is calling that premise into question. 

An unexamined "yes" is no better and sometimes worse than an ignorant "no" in that it actively reduces opportunities rather than just passively ignores them. In short, all this "no-brainer" malarkey when it comes to water features is costing us a lot of money that could easily be better spent but which we'll never get back. 

We've seen several frighteningly unthinking financial decisions from this council lately that, taken together, set quite a negative precedent that should be and, since no aquatics contracts have been let, can be immediately corrected before yet another boondoggle becomes a part of their permanent record.

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Recent columns:

June 25: ON THE AVENUES REWOUND: Red scarf, white shirt and San Miguel beer (2012).

June 18: ON THE AVENUES: These 10 definitions will help you speak local politics like a native.

June 11: ON THE AVENUES: This is Dan Coffey, New Albany’s quintessential Democrat.

June 4: ON THE AVENUES: Dan Coffey speaks for Jeff Gahan and the Democratic Party … unless they say otherwise.

May 28: ON THE AVENUES: The last of the summer beer.

May 21: ON THE AVENUES REWOUND: "I Just Want to Know, Can I Park Here Somewhere?”

Whither boice.net and the Reisz Furniture Building?

The Reisz building in 2006.

The Green Mouse's ear turns to the rumorama, and specifically, a recent hint that New Albany's boice.net will purchase and rehabilitate the long-moribund Main Street structure known locally as the Reisz Furniture Building.

The rumor was relayed with a puzzling caveat: Boice would be compelled to quantify the amount of money the company intends to invest in restoring the building for contemporary use, to the tune of $3 - 4 million. But to whom is this as yet unverified commitment being made? Seller or city?

The rumor may or may not be true. However, if factual, the obvious question asks itself: Will boice.net be receiving enticement in the form of credits commensurate with sewer tap-in fees waived for the Indianapolis-based developer of apartments on the former Coyle site?

If not, a follow-up: As a city, why do we persist in subsidizing outside entities, and not empower ourselves?

At least we're not the only ones asking this question (emphasis ours).

Carmel to consider incentives for $60M development, by Chris Sikich (Indy Star)

Anderson Birkla is negotiating for tax incentives to build a mixed-use development costing up to $60 million at the former Party Time Rental site on land the city owns in Carmel.

Mayor Jim Brainard and the Carmel Redevelopment Commission have been searching for a partner to redevelop the 6.5-acre site into homes, offices and retail for years, as a component of the city's emerging downtown. The shuttered warehouse is in a prominent location along the Monon Parkway and Rangeline Road, south of City Hall and City Center.

The mayor and redevelopment officials believe the proposed public investment — valued at roughly $9.85 million — is crucial to completing the deal and adding a blighted property back onto the city's tax rolls.

"We always conduct a financial analysis of our redevelopment projects and feel strongly that this project is in the best long-term financial interest of the community," Brainard said. "Mixed-use projects such as this have consistently shown to generate far more tax revenues for the city than the amounts invested."

Critics of the mayor's redevelopment policies, though, continue to wonder how long the city will subsidize development before the private sector will build at market rate.

Jeffie bar the door: Redevelopment don't need no stinking TIF input from schools.

The piranhas are circling TIF even as we receive another lesson in City Hall's innate non-transparency.

A fair share? NA-FC Schools questions impact of TIF districts on education dollars, by Daniel Suddeath (Morris Trucking Publications)

NEW ALBANY — It may be a chicken and egg argument, but New Albany-Floyd County School officials want to make sure the financial basket for public education isn’t left barren by tax-increment financing.

The New Albany Redevelopment Commission finalized a resolution Tuesday to expand the downtown parking garage TIF district to include the one-block Coyle site off East Spring Street.

As part of an agreement to lure a 157-unit, market-rate apartment project to the vacant site, the city has agreed to allow the developer, Flaherty & Collins of Indianapolis, to fund the project primarily through TIF revenue.

Councilman Cappuccino, who continues to stand so close to Mayor Jeff Gahan that some local bait shops won't serve them, rushed forward to defend what he always used to routinely decry.

Dan Coffey, a New Albany City Councilman and member of the redevelopment commission, said TIF districts are a crucial economic tool for municipalities.

But the school corporation came loaded for bear, brandishing Reformation-era church tax idioms.

“But you’re robbing Peter to pay Paul,” responded Fred McWhorter, chief business officer for NA-FC Schools.

McWhorter joined NA-FC School Board President Rebecca Gardenour at Tuesday’s redevelopment meeting to ask for consideration for the school system when the body is considering TIF issues.

Shay-ruff Duggins noted that the new apartment complex won't "tax" the school corporation because the city intends to lure rootless metrosexuals and not the kiddos.

Though some children may move in with their families, the apartments are designed more toward young professionals said David Duggins, director of economic development and redevelopment for the city.

Duggins added that it's a matter of priorities.

The impact adding one-block of property to the TIF district will have on the school system is minimal, and the same is true for other taxing units in Floyd County, he continued. “They will receive nothing less than they receive now,” he said.

Of course, they'll also receive no more, and speaking of unavailable extras in the form of the perennial non-transparency of the appointed Redevelopment Commission, upon which sits not only Coffey In Your Pocket, but also the chairman of the Democratic Party itself, it seems that a wee dram of the fix is in.

Since 2008, school corporations have been allowed to appoint a non voting representative to redevelopment commissions in order to provide input on issues that affect public education, such as TIF financing.

But a school representative has been largely absent from New Albany redevelopment meetings in recent years. New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan has declined to accept the recent appointment of NA-FC school board member Jessica Knable to the commission, Gardenour said.

“We appoint somebody, but the mayor has the final say so,” she said.

Jeff Gahan has the final say so ... when he bothers saying anything at all. When the school corporation belatedly shows an interest in city business, Gahan refuses to scan the ticket.

New Albany? It's not an option, is it?

Photo credit: MPI/Getty Images

Duggins on Coyle flats: "Flaherty Collins prefers Spring Street to be shifted to two-way travel."

But of course, as slavishly representing a mayor beset with moral cowardice, who seemingly remains determined to orphan his own purported streets project, Duggins was compelled to qualify his words to the city council.

The city just wrapped up a three-part public input series over a street study performed by planner Jeff Speck. As with most roads he discusses in the study, Speck suggested converting all of Spring Street to two-way traffic. Duggins said Flaherty Collins prefers Spring Street to be shifted to two-way travel, as the span of the road adjacent to the apartment site is one-way, but added it’s “not a deal breaker.”

The Clark County resident also praised the condition of New Albany's multiplicity of TIF accounts, spoke glowingly about his DemoDisneyDixiecratic cabal's "perfect" marriage with a state regime dominated by the GOP, noted that it always takes six months or more to produce an informational banner for the parking garage, thanked the US military for speedily wrapping the invasion of 922 Culbertson, and ordered a Bud Light longneck to be delivered from the Roadhouse.

"No, Pat, sit down. The server will bring it."

Luxury rental housing project in New Albany gets another blessing, by Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

The city is moving a 154-unit downtown apartment project along at a swift pace after the development garnered a $3.3 million commitment from the state.

Duggins tells Redevelopment that in spite of CM Benedetti, Slate Run Road will get election year sidewalks.

Congratulations, residents of Slate Run Road.

It's an election year, and coincidentally, the verdant and burbling TIF springs have miraculously replenished coffers just in time to promise those of you living between Charlestown Road and Slate Run Elementary that your kids will have sidewalks soon.

As for the rest of you, most of whom voted at one time or another for Diane Benedetti or Randy Smith, your compliance with the city's new Fundamentally Better Voter program will be checked closely to determine whether you are worthy of further implementation -- and Adam's writing the software as we speak.

Just look for Mickey Mouse logo on your ballot, and select accordingly.

River Ridge may gain Toyota instead of New Albany, by Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

SLATE RUN PROJECT TO PROCEED

During the overview of the city’s seven TIF districts, Duggins said the first phase of sidewalk and street improvements for Slate Run Road will likely commence this year.

The entire project — which would include the addition of sidewalks along Slate Run Road — is estimated to cost $3.6 million. It has been included in projects to be funded through the Charlestown Road TIF district, but work has been delayed for the past four years.

Funding has been an issue, as there are more than $12.8 million in projects under construction or that have been proposed that are to be paid out of the Charlestown Road TIF district.

The district had a cash balance at the end of 2014 of just more than $5 million, and is expected to garner an additional $1.6 million in TIF proceeds this year.

Instead of tackling the entire project at once, Duggins said improvements will be implemented in phases. The first phase — which would cost about $1.9 million — would see sidewalks added and upgrades made on and along Slate Run Road from near the Charlestown Road intersection to just past Slate Run Elementary School.

“We’re finishing engineering design on that,” Duggins said.

With another $2 million in TIF subsidies on the way, Adam Dickey still can't define "quality of life."

But he knows it when he sees it, and it's called "upscale."

Here are the "proper" views of the proposed Coyle property development.

Adam Dickey is the chairman of the Floyd County Democratic Party. He's on the redevelopment commission. He's a player, a power broker, and a ham-fisted censor customarily unwilling to engage in substantive conversation with those outside his immediate zone of aggrandizement -- but that's just politics.

When Adam Dickey, Jeff Gahan, David Duggins or anyone else in city government finally deign to explain to the rest of us exactly what they mean by these frequent Quality of Life utterances, then maybe the rest of us will be able to view 20-something million dollars of TIF debt over three years in something approximating a proper context.

Until they do, and apart from the merits of this particular project and all the others that must be incentivized by borrowing against the future, it's all smoke, mirrors and vacuous verbiage ... and places to hang plaques and re-election posters.

Did the UEA board finally authorize the economic impact expenditure?

Does the reality of a GOP super majority in the Indiana legislature questioning the future of TIF enter into civic calculations?

How strong are these TIFS, anyway?

Transparency. It should be the theme of the remainder of this year, and all the years to come. This group isn't capable of transparency, is it?

Action begins for upscale apartment project in downtown New Albany, by Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

NEW ALBANY — The first step by the city to facilitate a $16 million apartment project at the former Coyle Chevrolet site downtown was taken Tuesday.

The New Albany Redevelopment Commission approved a declaratory resolution to include a portion of the Coyle Site, which is located along East Spring Street, into the downtown tax-increment financing district ...

 ... Though the discussion wasn’t directly related to the apartment project, the commission spoke about TIF funding during Tuesday’s meeting after receiving a regular report on the status of the districts.

State lawmakers are considering legislation that would cut back on TIF for local government, and commission members said such measures don’t take into account the importance of that funding for municipalities.

“It would affect our quality of life, and we would be a lesser city for it,” said commission member Adam Dickey.

Jeff Gahan's re-election campaign, and what $9 million IS and IS NOT buying.

$9  million is buying a shiny wet bauble, and with this being an election year, the mayor (or more likely, an acolyte) finally has returned to his Facebook page to campaign after a couple of years off-line, and on the seemingly permanent down-low.

My first reply was deleted. Let's see how the second one fares.

Meanwhile, a vast selection of needed improvements will not receive $9 million or portions thereof. A few of these are depicted below.

Flashing lights at a crosswalk adjacent to an urban elementary school (they've been out for months, and the street department told a constituent it couldn't afford to fix them).

An explanation as to why New Albany's premier autumn festival gives independent small businesses the ingratitude of a bum's rush.

A crosswalk and calmed streets, so this lady can get from one side to another without being hit by ...

... trucks that shouldn't be allowed in a residential area in the first place.

Of course, it would help if signals like this one worked.

$9 million won't purchase relief for this house, located a fee blocks from the planned Coyle redevelopment, the city's cost for which isn't yet known, but hey: A million here, a million there, and it's okay, because HE'LL be paying for it:

(Can you find the truck that shouldn't be there in the first place?)

$9 million won't be addressing the city's trashiness.

It won't be used to address the abominable decay at Fairview Cemetery, where "perpetual maintenance" signs are used as metaphorical doorstops.

It didn't save the building at 922 Culbertson, which came down for no reason apart from the mayor's need to humiliate Landmarks -- and Dan Coffey's penny ante electoral deal-making with CCE's demolition teams.

There'll be no love for the Amphitheater, although 2015 will see a renewal of temporary re-election shows in places not built for the purpose, which require abnormally high expenditures for temporary infrastructure.

I could continue until bandwidth is as limp and exhausted as Jeff Gahan's governing tactics, but the message is fairly clear. Look past the shiny baubles to be financed by your (and their) grandchildren, and ask: Is New Albany genuinely cleaner and fundamentally better than it was four years ago?

Are we TIF enough? New study shows that TIFs are "popular but ineffective economic development tools."

But pools ... he didn't say a single word about pools and parks, just factories ... c'mon, tell 'em, Adam ... what was that about Pillsbury ... where's David? DAVID ...

Study: TIFs Have 'Little' Impact, by Dan McGowan (InsideINdianaBusiness.com)

MUNCIE, Ind. (January 29, 2015) - Tax increment financing (TIF) is a popular but ineffective economic development tool for Hoosier communities, and it needs more stringent state oversight, says a new policy brief from Ball State University.

"Some Economic Effects of Tax Increment Financing in Indiana," an analysis of TIF districts in Indiana counties by Ball State's Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER), found that TIFs are associated with less employment, less taxable income and slightly higher tax rates.

Gahan's plan for keep Pillsbury: A $7 million bond issue.

Props to the News and Tribune's Daniel Suddeath, who is tweeting about the city's offer to General Mills.

New Albany City Council to consider $7 million bond package Tuesday to update Pillsbury Plant in hopes of keeping facility open.

The bond incentive resolution for General Mills deal states the Pillsbury plant in New Albany would have to stay open a min. of 5 years.

If resolution approved, New Albany Redevelopment Commission and NA Council would have to take additional votes, same as any bond issue.

According to city, Pillsbury plant paid $661k in property taxes in 2014 and $7 million over last decade.

The financing plan would be a mix of tax-increment financing and possibly EDIT money, per David Duggins, city economic development director.