Must LeClaire taxpayers kick in on every project?
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LeClaire’s latest taxpayer-backed development plan needs to go back to taxpayers for more money.
In July, developers of River Run proposed a tax increment finance district they said would attract up to $8 million in investment.
They wanted $2 million in incentives to build a retail strip center and a riverfront restaurant. Twenty percent taxpayer financing was bad enough. Now they’re back to the city asking for taxpayers to provide $3 million in incentives, borrowed up front, then paid back through taxes over 20 years.
LeClaire has long abandoned the notion of using tax increment financing districts to develop blighted areas. The council has used it to build new, $300,000 homes on scenic river bluffs. Now they’re being asked to make taxpayers shoulder a
37 percent share of developing prime, riverfront land, next to a cross-country interstate and a previously TIF-ed motel.
Is there no land in LeClaire that can be developed without taxpayer support? This deal would suggest so.
Any other investor would get an equity share. In LeClaire, taxpayers will get stuck with providing police and other services for 20 years while almost all of River Run’s taxes go to repay the loan given todevelopers.
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