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K.C. candidates discuss TIF
Mayoral hopefuls explain stances at Information Exchange
By: Gene Hanson
Economic development in the Northland was the focus of a forum for Kansas City mayoral and council candidates that centered on the effectiveness of tax increment financing.
“If you spend a lot of money, you can build something nice,” mayoral candidate Mark Funkhouser said at the Clay County Economic Development Council’s Information Exchange on March 7. “But there is no data that accurately shows how well these TIF projects are doing.”
Funkhouser made the remark when asked, along with his opponent in the Tuesday, March 27, city election, Mayor Pro Tem Alvin Brooks, to assess Northland TIF projects such as North Oak Trafficway, Briarcliff, Shoal Creek and the Kansas City International Airport corridor.
“The revenue projections on TIF projects are generally accurate,” Brooks said. “But we do need to keep monitoring these projects as we move forward.”
Funkhouser said he had opposed the super TIF for the Briarcliff project.
“I opposed it because I thought the development costs were too high,” he said. “I also opposed it because I wanted a moratorium on all TIF proposals until the City Council developed an official policy regarding TIF as called for in the city charter.”
Funkhouser said a performance audit on the effectiveness of TIF projects should be made public.
“It was put on the City Council’s finance committee agenda for the Feb. 1 meeting,” Funkhouser said. “It stayed there about an hour and a half, and chairman Chuck Eddy pulled it. We probably won’t see it now until about May 1.”
Brooks, a member of the finance committee, denied that the council was holding up the audit report.
“If you want to know where the audit report is, it’s in City Auditor Gary White’s office,” he said. “He’s got it; the council doesn’t have it.”
Funkhouser said TIF projects in more affluent areas of the city were sucking revenue out of poorer areas and negatively affecting nearby neighborhoods.
The focus of the TIF audit was to determine to what extent the city managed and monitored TIF projects, including many of them north of the river, and whether they actually generated the revenue they projected.
That report was supposed to have been made public in 2006.
Eddy said earlier that release of the report would be delayed so the Kansas City TIF Commission could take a look at it. Instead, the commission staff saw it and wrote a response. The response was sent back to the city auditor on Feb. 14 and was supposed to have been released by Feb. 21.
It had been kept under wraps in the city auditor’s office since then.
Business Editor Gene Hanson can be reached at 389-6638 or ghanson@npgco.com.
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“If you spend a lot of money, you can build something nice,” mayoral candidate Mark Funkhouser said at the Clay County Economic Development Council’s Information Exchange on March 7. “But there is no data that accurately shows how well these TIF projects are doing.”
Funkhouser made the remark when asked, along with his opponent in the Tuesday, March 27, city election, Mayor Pro Tem Alvin Brooks, to assess Northland TIF projects such as North Oak Trafficway, Briarcliff, Shoal Creek and the Kansas City International Airport corridor.
“The revenue projections on TIF projects are generally accurate,” Brooks said. “But we do need to keep monitoring these projects as we move forward.”
Funkhouser said he had opposed the super TIF for the Briarcliff project.
“I opposed it because I thought the development costs were too high,” he said. “I also opposed it because I wanted a moratorium on all TIF proposals until the City Council developed an official policy regarding TIF as called for in the city charter.”
Funkhouser said a performance audit on the effectiveness of TIF projects should be made public.
“It was put on the City Council’s finance committee agenda for the Feb. 1 meeting,” Funkhouser said. “It stayed there about an hour and a half, and chairman Chuck Eddy pulled it. We probably won’t see it now until about May 1.”
Brooks, a member of the finance committee, denied that the council was holding up the audit report.
“If you want to know where the audit report is, it’s in City Auditor Gary White’s office,” he said. “He’s got it; the council doesn’t have it.”
Funkhouser said TIF projects in more affluent areas of the city were sucking revenue out of poorer areas and negatively affecting nearby neighborhoods.
The focus of the TIF audit was to determine to what extent the city managed and monitored TIF projects, including many of them north of the river, and whether they actually generated the revenue they projected.
That report was supposed to have been made public in 2006.
Eddy said earlier that release of the report would be delayed so the Kansas City TIF Commission could take a look at it. Instead, the commission staff saw it and wrote a response. The response was sent back to the city auditor on Feb. 14 and was supposed to have been released by Feb. 21.
It had been kept under wraps in the city auditor’s office since then.
Business Editor Gene Hanson can be reached at 389-6638 or ghanson@npgco.com.