IS IT TRUE February 21, 2017

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IS IT TRUE TIF’s Districts capture property tax dollars from increased property tax assessments, those taxes above a certain base assessment set at the inception of the TIF?  …property taxes collected in the TIF Districts become the award to the TIF?  …TIFs are formed by local elected officials for special projects.?  … when a mayor needs extra money to pay for a new sports center, medical school or hotel getting money from the TIF District is an easy answer?

IS IT TRUE over the years the TIF Districts have become a black hole of lost tax monies and they are now considered  a political and financial boondoggle?  …taxpayers are told that TIFs have no financial impact on us., but that just isn’t true.? …somehow politicians, the media and even experts have fooled us about the valuable of the TIF Districts?   …they deny the very questions that should be asked first?  …the questions are “what is the TIF tax dollar impact on taxpayers and what are the benefit?   …the bottom line is that Governmental capital  projects should be planned, prioritized and executed. before using TIF monies? …that over the years our elected officials have turned Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) is a boondoggle and a black hole with the taxpayers holding the bag?

IS IT TRUE that the former Evansville Icemen had a GameDay Blimp sponsored by Old National Bank?  …this $6,000 GameDay Blimp was used by the former Evansville Icemen for interior marketing promotions activities inside the Ford Center?…one evening the GameDay Blimp was left out in the cold rain after a game by members of Ford Center staff?  …not only did  the cold rain caused significant damage to the GameDay Blimp but a loading  dock vehicle ran over it thus causing the Blimp never to fly again?

IS IT TRUE the majority owner of the Evansville Thunderbolts (VenueWorks) and minority investor (a guy named Hall) leased the Ford Center for professional hockey games for 2017?  …we have confirmed that the Evansville Thunderbolts are paying Venueworks a $1,000 lease fee for each home game played at the Ford Center?  … the Thunderbolt ownership will be paying Venueworks $28,000 in base rent for all 28 home games?

IS IT TRUE that former Evansville Icemen Hockey team over a three year period of time paid the Ford Center the following amount of base rent for 36 home games (a range of rent per game of $10,926 to $11,479)? …from 2015-2016 they paid $413,244 ? …from 2014-2015 they paid $403,164? …from 2013-2014 they paid $393,336?

IS IT TRUE we would like either the Mayor, City Controller or the President ERC to explain to our readers why there is a major difference in the per game change to rent the Ford Center for Hockey games? …we are sure they will have a good explanation for the difference of lease fees charged to the Icemen and Thunderbolts by VenueWorks?

IS IT TRUE that the decline of brick and mortar stores has picked up speed and Evansville is not being spared the rod?…Harp’s on Green River Road, where Edna Harp has been selling pets and pet supplies for years will be shutting down soon?…many local pets have been purchased from Harp’s and soon that will be over?…we wonder who will be moving into the soon to be empty building?…Sears Holdings has announced that the first K-Mart ever up in Michigan is being closed?…we wonder how long it will be until all of the K-Marts and Sears in the country are shuttered or moved online?

IS IT TRUE Forty “underperforming” Carrabba’s, Outback, Bonefish Grill and Flemings restaurants will be closing by the end of the year, according to the company that owns them?…
Bloomin’ Brands Inc. said on Friday that it will close the restaurants located in various parts of the country after three restaurants were closed in the last quarter of 2016?…Bloomin’ Brands have not yet released a list of the restaurants that are to be closed?…there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth if Evansville loses its Bonefish or Outback?

FOOTNOTE: Todays “Readers Poll” question is: Are you surprised what the former Evansville Icemen team paid Venuworks to lease the Ford Center for each home hockey game?

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18 COMMENTS

  1. Sears and K-Mart are not strong enough to engage in the social engineering against Trump. It will likely bring an end to these establishments.

  2. Last night’s news featured the success of industries located in Gibson county, but the problem of unskilled labor. Evansville might be a hub but not the spindle the economic wheels turns on.

  3. Sounds like Winnecke and the Civic Center bandits thought they would make a lot of money off the Thunderbolts. Since their average attendance is hovering around 200-300 people per game, I wonder who is footing the bills? Surely local-hockey savior, Mike Hall, isn’t paying for team payroll out of his pocket.

    So even though no one in Evansville goes to the games, we’re all paying for tickets with our tax money. Check the line items for those sewer repair funds for the new hotel!

  4. The mighty Thunderbolts don’t exist in nature, anywhere. They are an embarrassing artificial contrivance born out of desperation.

    That guy named Hall is a great hockey fan, one of the best. Just ask him. Collectively we must pony up to sate Evansville’s mayor-declared and publicly funded hockey lust.

  5. While Mr. Geary was losing hundreds of thousands of dollars . .paying any average of 10k per game in rent ..the now Thunderbolts are being subsidized by the City of Evansville for any losses??? Guess Evansville has become an economic sanctuary city???

    • Remember when Winnecke said that “No Taxpayer Money Will Be Spent On A Hockey Team”? That might rank right up there with “Read my lips, there will be NO new taxes.”

  6. If you did away with a TIF District tomorrow what would happen? Well, if there was economic development going on within that district that resulted in higher property value assessment and higher property taxes, that increased revenue would head to the General Fund and could be used where ever the need was greatest. Isn’t that the way it always worked in the past, before there was anything called a TIF District?

    The only scenario where the TIF concept actually might make sense, and is the scenario that gave birth to the TIF concept, is using it as an incentive to attract new development in blighted areas of the city, along with other tools available to city government. Using TIF to supplement the profits of a public-private project, that should have been a totally private venture in the first place, is the worst use of the TIF concept.

  8. The Ford Centers seems to be a good illustration of the folly of TIF:

    Food & Beverage Tax is also used to make the Ford Center’s bond payments.
    We all pay in to the Food & Beverage Tax.
    Yet, only people/businesses in the TIF District get to use the incrementral property tax money in the TIF District.

    Same is true for Casino Revenue.
    We all (at least gamblers) pay in.
    Yet, only those in the TIF District get to use the added property taxes.

    *Seems like TIF ensures that you will have uneven development–only those in the TIF District benefit, and THE REST OF THE CITY loses that upside of higher property taxes from development*. Maybe a new swimming pool on the North Side could have been built using TIF funds locked up in Downtown ?

    • It’s funny that you bring up the Casino Revenue. Does no one find it suspicious that the issues with the IceMen came up right around the time that Tropicana was waving a $25 Million dollar check in front of Winnecke? Doesn’t Geary own a place that might be considered competition to Tropicana? Who wants to bet that part of that $25 Million is funding the ThunderChokes?

    • So lets take a wild guess as to how this will be resolved. Can you say: refi bonds? Kick the can down the road for future generations to pay off.

  11. *Harp’s Pet Store should have closed a long time ago.
    *Bloomin” Brands did release a list of locations to be closed. All you need to do is read the 14WFIEweb page.
    *K-Mart should close everywhere. Those stores have become dumps. Sears-Roebuck and Company’s mustake was to get in bed with K-Mart and Ace Hardware. Sears has circled the drain ever since

  12. Thanks CCO for today’s TIF zone topic. If Evansville is properly calculating downtown TIF zone taxes there is no way it is producing substantial tax revenue. It only applies to increased assessed value, such as the value of an addition to a restaurant due to increased demand created by building the Ford Center, not the total assessed value of the building. Reopening a closed business should result in $0 TIF revenue.

    • I wonder when the Courier and Press will do an article about who is paying for the ThunderChokes bills. Probably not soon since I’m sure the owner of Kinway Apartment (Councilman Weaver, nice way to leave that out C&P) was dying for them to take attention off his latest legal woes involving his ex-wife.

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