The Tennessee Smokies‘ proposed new stadium is way over budget despite cutting way back on renderings spending, and team owner and local political bigwig Randy Boyd doesn’t want to have to be the one paying the extra costs, lord knows. But the city of Knoxville’s contribution is fixed based on whatever new sales taxes can be generated from the stadium and its surrounding district (plus a few other things, but never mind that right now). What to do? Why, redefine “surrounding” of course:
The Tax Increment Financing district surrounding the publicly-owned multi-use stadium is proposed to expand into the Magnolia Avenue Warehouse District – several blocks beyond what was originally planned…
“The stadium will be a catalyst that creates new economic opportunities in East Knoxville and brings new quality-of-life improvements to nearby families,” Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon said. “It will generate additional investment and create jobs. By expanding the TIF district, those direct benefits to the community can come faster.”
Um, just no. Expanding the tax increment financing district — really a STIF district, since it’s sales taxes that are being siphoned off, not the more usual property taxes that typify a TIF — would just cannibalize more existing city revenues, something that economists have already pointed out will be a problem if spending in the stadium district is just displaced from somewhere else in the city. By taking several more city blocks and kicking back sales taxes from them to Boyd, the city would just be increasing Boyd’s take at the expense of the city treasury — I guess if you consider the stadium a “direct benefit to the community,” then giving Boyd more money to build it faster will speed that up, but I’m pretty sure treating English that way violates the Geneva Convention.
Boyd and Mayor Kincannon don’t even win the Tennessee state prize for most egregious explaining away of added public subsidies, though, because over in Chattanooga, where the Lookouts owners are seeking their own taxpayer-funded stadium, we have this:
City officials are refuting one source and telling News 12 that the size of the Lookouts Stadium tax increment financing district hasn’t ‘grown’ from 120 acres to 470.
It was always that larger size.
This despite a mayoral aide telling the Chattanooga Times Free Press that he and other city officials literally walked around the proposed stadium site, looked at neighboring parcels, and thought, “Why not include those? We said, ‘OK, that will be in the district.'” But you can’t really blame them, they were undoubtedly just trying to bring direct benefits to the community faster, and what better way to do so than to give more tax money to the local sports team owner? It’s like an isosceles triangle!
I am quite disappointed in both the Knoxville and Chatanooga elected officials. They keep bickering over a few hundred acres of sales tax zones to generate welfare payments for the local billionaires.
This is the kind of small time blinkered thinking that plagues towns and small cities across the land. What they need is real leadership and vision.
Look, you wanna generate some real income? Expand your TIF/STIF/CRL/BRZ zone to include Atlanta, Nashville and/or Charlotte.
We are just drawing lines on a map and forcing the people inside those lines to pay for our toys. Ok someone else’s toys that we occasionally get to pay to go watch. Still. The important thing is it’s toys were are talking about.
As a motivational/safety/productivity poster in a place I used to work proclaimed (and probably still proclaims): THIMK!