Specific parameters outlining where 50度灰视频 developers should receive tax breaks 鈥 and how large they should be 鈥 are still six months or more away, the latest delay in the city鈥檚 efforts to reform the routinely granted subsidies.
Prompted by growing concern that the cash-strapped city should have better guidelines for how it doles out incentives, the city鈥檚 economic development office and the Board of Aldermen鈥檚 Housing, Urban Development and Zoning (HUDZ) Committee unveiled .
A measure setting those recommendations quietly passed the committee Wednesday.
But gone from the resolution were specific recommendations for the amount of incentives the city should offer based on the strength of a neighborhood. Instead, a far more general substitute was sent to the full board.
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While the guidelines never would have been binding, economic development officials and aldermen had indicated they could help guide negotiations with developers and debate by city lawmakers.
The guidelines were supposed to serve as a stopgap measure until the city conducts a more in-depth economic development plan. But that proposal, too, has been delayed. during the mayoral election at the beginning of the year, 50度灰视频 has yet to find funding for a citywide plan and there鈥檚 little indication it is close.
The resolution passed Wednesday simply expresses support for the general idea of approving less valuable incentive packages in strong areas and offering richer subsidies in struggling neighborhoods.
The cited a market value analysis conducted by the city鈥檚 planning department and said property tax abatement should be capped at five years at 75 percent of added value in the strongest three market value categories of the study.
In those areas, tax increment financing (TIF), which lets developers use increased tax revenue to finance a project, would have had a recommended dollar cap of 10 percent of the development鈥檚 value.
Alderman Joe Roddy, who chairs the HUDZ Committee and has pushed for the guidelines, had said he was holding up development subsidy bills in his committee until the language passed. But with several bills coming up that are 鈥渢ime sensitive,鈥 he asked colleagues to move it out of his committee 鈥渨ith the idea there鈥檚 a lot more work coming on this.鈥
鈥淚t鈥檚 not as specific as I like, but unless I鈥檓 going to hold everything back, this is as far as I鈥檓 going to go,鈥 he told the Post-Dispatch.
A more detailed analysis outlining the size and location of incentive packages based on neighborhood strength is in the works. But the analyst in the city鈥檚 short-staffed economic development office has said it could take another six months to complete.
The guidelines passed by the committee on Wednesday still contain recommendations against letting TIFs capture new sales taxes passed by voters or letting the city pledge tax revenue to TIF projects above what is outlined in state statutes, among other provisions.
The city鈥檚 economic development chief, Otis Williams, cautioned aldermen not to make the guidelines too specific 鈥渂ecause we don鈥檛 have any deal that is the same.鈥
If his office crafts developer incentive packages beyond the guidelines, he added, 鈥渨e will clearly make a case鈥 why they鈥檙e necessary.