Our Urban Renewal Agency, the LCDC, has its annual numbers out in time for its August 20th budget meeting.
A lot of people passionate about urban renewal often misrepresent the LCDC’s budget. I’ve heard some people on other blogs claim that it consumes $7,000,000 a year in property taxes. That number is incorrect, but gets repeated often.
In today’s CDA Press, on page C9, you’ll see the public notice for the LCDC’s budget meeting, along with a summary of its income statements and projections for the next fiscal year. Here are the numbers:
LCDC Tax Increment Revenue
| FY 2007 | FY 2008 | FY 2009 |
|---|---|---|
| $2,640,711 | $3,124,451 | $3,795,923 |
LCDC Fund Balance (end-of-year)
| FY 2007 | FY 2008 | FY 2009 |
|---|---|---|
| $2,188,955 | $2,876,975 | $3,692,922 |
Those are the real figures, quoted from the paper.
Keep in mind: That money is property tax money. It would have normally gone to the City, County, NIC, EMS, and the Highway Districts. It would have been used for public safety and welfare. So the question you must demand answered by our Mayor and City Council is this: Is the reduction in those vital public services worth the return we get from the LCDC?
Those are some interesting numbers. The last income data shown on the LCDC web site ends in Sept 2007 and it roughly agrees with this data for that FY. Yet that income was up sharply from the previous year. The stated increment value for the LCDC in 2002 was $49 million (again from their web site). In 2007 the LCDC stated increment value was $280 million. That’s a 571% increase in 5 years time. Yet their projected income shown here predicts increases of around 20% annually. Considering how much new product is just now being completed I would think that these projections are wildly underestimated. Even at that when accumulated these total almost $10 million and that’s not chump change.
Comment by Wallypog — August 13, 2008 @ 1:16 pm
If you continue the projection, at about 20% increase in property tax increment income per year, here is how the LCDC will consume tax dollars until 2021, when supposedly the downtown/lake district closes:
2010 $4,551,311.68
2011 $5,457,022.70
2012 $6,542,970.22
2013 $7,845,021.29
2014 $9,406,180.53
2015 $11,278,010.45
2016 $13,522,334.53
2017 $16,213,279.11
2018 $19,439,721.65
2019 $23,308,226.26
2020 $27,946,563.28
2021 $33,507,929.37
That’s a total of over $188 million in tax dollars that would otherwise go toward police, fire, parks, and so on, but instead will go into big developers’ pockets.
Comment by Dan — August 13, 2008 @ 2:17 pm
With the heavy responsibility for diverting so many of our tax dollars; perhaps Tony Berns should get a raise or at least a secretary.
Comment by doubleseetripleeye — August 15, 2008 @ 10:07 am
According to the Press (8/21) the LCDC reported projected income for FY 2008/2009 at $5,100,000.00 not the $3.8 million shown here. It is possible that these numbers reflected only one part of the URD and not both. Also the URD has now been officially expanded to squeeze in Sorenson so additional revenues may be added. Which begs the question: Is the base property value for the added properties taken as of now or is it grandfathered to some previous date?
Comment by Wallypog — August 21, 2008 @ 7:12 am