Maybe Health Care REIT can take care of the horses while we give away the farm…
Yes, the way we keep and lure businesses into Ohio and into Toledo is not because of our real estate prices or our fantastic residents who would make great employees, we basically pay them to come or to stay here, at least as long as the abatement train is in the station, then when the money dries up or someone offers them some greener pastures? They leave…
I’m not totally anti-abatement, and in reading this part of it should be acceptable given the current climate:
The legislation asks Toledo City Council to approve an economic development incentive package, including a Toledo Municipal Job Creation Tax Credit for seven years at 40 percent of the payroll income tax generated by the employees covered under the agreement; a Toledo Expansion Incentive, and a 12-year, 100 percent real estate tax abatement.
It’s the part in bold I have a problem with, if the Toledo Municipal Job Creation Credit only applies to new jobs created.
A 12 year 100 percent real estate tax abatement affects more than the City, it affects the Toledo Public School System, the County, and a variety of other programs that rely on real estate tax funding. That’s not something the City should have the ability to give away…Go see for yourself, using Areis, the Dana property at 4500 Dorr Street at the present value, with no improvements generates $298,650.46 in total taxes and assessments, 201,909.82 of which goes to the Toledo Public School system; $65,173.79to the County…If the City wants to give away the $16,733.03 and the $886.26 in special assessments (plus whatever the increase would be after improvements) so be it.
Expecting TPS to take a loss of over $200,000 for 12 years is a bit much. Realistically that’s why it’s so easy for the Mayor to suggest giving away the farm when it comes to real estate property tax, the City’s portion of it is chicken feed…
I really struggle with tax abatements and TIFs; if a business can make it with the current tax structure, what is going to happen when the incentives expire (we’ve already seen a few examples of what happens). Perhaps if our taxes were lower across the board, these huge incentives would not be necessary. Otherwise, this is simply pushing the cost of living/doing business here onto the residents (especially when it comes to the schools’ portion) and businesses that don’t have the leverage to get their own tax abatement.
February 9th, 2009 at 9:46 amI would agree with your position, as well as wondering considering small business is traditionally one of the growth areas, we really demand more of them as far as real estate tax and other taxes that they don’t get abatements for. It sets up a scenario where the larger corporations are rewarded and the smaller businesses are not. Hard to describe that as fair or equitable.
February 9th, 2009 at 9:55 amThis is what was posted in January, that stated in part that it would be 45 jobs created as opposed to 40.
February 9th, 2009 at 4:12 pmLisa – is there a ‘make whole’ provision for the schools? I thought this was common but I know it’s not done in all cases – where the property owner pays the equivalent of the school’s portion of property tax directly to the schools (although it is not a property tax, which created problems for Anthony Wayne with regard to Dana’s tax abatement when Dana went in to bankruptcy.) But in this case, is TPS going to be made whole?
February 9th, 2009 at 7:51 pmThat’s an excellent question, I’ve been researching that and could not find anything that stipulated it had to be done in the ORC or the Administrative Code as of yet.
February 9th, 2009 at 8:06 pm