The latest bit of reporting from CWEnder Jack Grone on his McPherson, Independent Journalism for St. Louis and Beyond site will be of interest to city residents, especially CWEnders. It is not a quick read, but if you’ve wondered how Tax Increment Financing works, this well-researched article will be helpful.
The introduction:
The Argyle TIF (Argyle Parking Garage at Lindell and Euclid) in St. Louis is helping divert $1 million of tax money each year to service debt in the city’s Parking Division. Some people think the money should be going to schools instead.
The TIF Trade: The Treasurer, the Argyle Garage and a Huge Pile of Cash
“But where will people park?”
It’s a question for the ages in car-dependent towns like St. Louis, and it was one of the issues city leaders grappled with in the 1990s as they considered the prospects of the Central West End.
There, private developers were pouring millions into an effort to remake the shuttered Chase Park Plaza hotel into a major destination for business meetings, receptions, galas, dining and movies. The hope was that a revitalized Chase would in turn spur the redevelopment of storefronts and residences on nearby Maryland Plaza, at the time a largely forlorn stretch still searching for new purpose 20 years after Saks Fifth Avenue and other retailers had left for the suburbs.
Click here to read the article in its entirety.
Since the article was published last Tuesday, Grone has summarized his reporting into 6 easy-to-follow tweets. They are reprinted below, or you can follow Grone on Twitter here.
1/ In a nutshell, the Argyle TIF is diverting a million bucks a year to subsidize the parking division’s debt. @tishaura didn’t create this deal, but city’s parking ops still benefit from it. @HeatherNStL and @jeffreyboyd say the TIF’s $$ should go to city schools.
2/ The TIF got started 20 years ago to help fund the building of the Argyle parking garage at Lindell & Euclid. @LydaKrewson helped set it up. Right now it gets $2 million in tax money each year from the @ChaseParkPlaza alone.
3/ This thing has captured $18 million in taxes so far; that’s a massive TIF, especially for a parking garage that only cost $11.4 million. And the bulk of that cost was supposed to come from parking revenue, not taxes. (@TeamTIFSTL and @AuditorGalloway are you listening?)
4/ Does the parking division even need the TIF’s money? Probably not. The parking division had $21 million in unrestricted assets as of last June. That is a nice big pile of cash. (Some of which has already been transferred to @STLCityGov reserves.)
5/ The Argyle TIF has its own cash pile: $6.2 million as of last June, says city report. That cash is just sitting there while city can’t even fix its garbage trucks. Yowza. Wondering what @MeganEllyia @PresReed and @SenatorNasheed think, since each wants to be aldermanic prez.
6/ People in @STLCityGov who work for @tishaura and @stlcomptroller want to find a solution to disburse the TIF’s cash ahead of its expiry in 2021. It’ll be interesting to watch Board of Aldermen this fall. And @LydaKrewson office, too.
Thanks to Jack Grone for his in-depth, eye-opening reporting on this important topic. Let’s hope our elected officials will take the necessary steps to redirect these substantial and sorely needed funds for the benefit of all citizens.