End Welfare...Unless It's For Me

The conservative, free market, anti-socialism boosters sure do love welfare and market-intervention when it benefits them.

Amount of cash provided to developers by Wisconsin communities limited by Evers' budget proposal.

Evers' budget plan includes a provision targeting communities which provide financing help for commercial developments through tax incremental financing districts...

The governor's 2019-'21 budget proposal, released Thursday night, would limit cash grants for developers to 20 percent of a tax financing district's project costs.

One of the private sector shills whined,

It "would undo years of bipartisan work to create the most important, and really the only tool Wisconsin municipalities have to spur economic development and create jobs," said Jim Villa, chief executive officer of the Wisconsin chapter of NAIOP, formerly known as the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.

As I wrote in a previous post, “Another much touted, yet becoming ever more so destructive, policy tool is tax incremental financing (TIF). These were initially established to bring investment to blighted, low-income areas. But nowadays, more states are loosening their eligibility requirements and allowing affluent areas to reap the benefits. TIFs allow a municipality to issue a bond to pay for part of the costs of the new development. The property tax revenue generated by the development is then used to pay off the bonds. Some municipalities also allow sales tax increments, where the sales tax generated by the new development can be diverted to redevelopment costs.”

In essence, using taxpayer money (cheap credit from a municipality) to finance speculative development where the rewards benefit the usual cast of characters at the expense of the community at large.

And, to claim this is the only tool municipalities have to spur economic development and create jobs, is complete horseshit.  By providing good public transportation options, broadband access, modern water and electrical infrastructure, and adequately funding public education, the public sector can spur economic development and create jobs. 

This is just the gravy train crying because someone is trying to cut off some of their corporate welfare.  

Governor Tony Evers merely wants to bring back some of the original intent and more accountability to tax incremental financing.