Letter to the editor (South County Times) reference the TIF, TDD, CID (click here)
Martha Duchild has nailed this one completely folks ! She knows where of she speaks, and this is but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this "deal." If your at all interested in where the money goes may I suggest you read this, and then have a conversation with your Alderman before they do anything like this again !
Well done Martha, were proud of you !
Tom Ford
NO. 764
Well done Martha, were proud of you !
Tom Ford
NO. 764
posted by Crestwood Independent at 09:31
6 Comments:
As an adder to Martha's excellent letter I might add one fact.
The TIF was paid off early due to the fact that Crestwood did not receive on red cent of that tax money, it all went to pay off the TIF earlier than it normally would have been.
From now on we will, but it's been said that we gave up 1.6 million in tax revenue to get Kohl's and the private swim club built. Now how long will it take to recoup that "Loss ?" Meanwhile Crestwood Court's became a ghost town, dropping at least $400,000.00 in tax revenue per year.
At best a TIF, TDD, CID is a foolish way to lure a developer. At worst it is a so called tool for the developer to "get well" on tour backs !
I trust our leadership can see the fallacy of these "tools" and never, ever again just hand them out like they were candy !
Tom Ford
So, first we complain about the higher taxes shoppers have to pay a Kohl's due to all the special taxing. Yet blame them for Macy's closing due to them taking business away. As you stated Crestwood Court and up and down Watson is a ghost town or becoming one anyway. In order to Crestwood back to our former glory a few things need to happen. Our commercial tax base is all but gone and it needs to be revived. In order to have businesses invest in our community we have to offer something to encourage that commitment. We are our own worst enemy since we are not willing to carry more of the burned(property tax)and depend on commercial property(sales tax). If we didn't depend on the mall for all these years(and had higher taxes) I feel we could be more selective of who we and how often we offered tax incentives to business wishing to come to crestwood. I also find it interesting that we take about cost and loss of revenue, yet the cost of over 300,000 payed to Affton Fire for protection of annexed area of Ward 3.
One contributing factor to our city's financial situation is the fact that when times were good, money was not put in the cookie jar. Easy Come Easy Go. But then, who knew. So we built Whitecliff, prettied up all our parks and allowed a private pool to build a replacement pool behind city hall at a totally inappropriate spot disturbing the home owners whose back yards were disrupted. This way Kohls could obtain the old pool property and make that land part of Kohl's parking lot. The pool got 850,000 for property assessed for about 225,000. Not a bad deal. TIF's are so nice!! During the years preceeding this happening the BOA and the Zoning Board had members of this private pool greasing the wheels so to speak. That same administration then tried to build a new city hall/police station for 450 Million which was waylaid by a citizen group who collected resident signatures to stop this travesty. Since, of course at this very time the empty train was coming down the track and we had a 2.5M LOC at a bank to run the city. During all this, Crestwood's legal bills alone should have been a wakeup call, but no we had staff out the gazoo (high paying staff), and lots of bills for architect plans, changeout orders, and a settlement paid to 2 city administrators and a financial officer with doubtful creds. Then we got a new software program, never used for 120,000, a fleet of new police cars, a used fire engine, all the regular upkeep and salaries of city employees. Not to mention the fact that a lot of this went on in an environment of secrecy. So now things are tight and the economy and our lack of good judgement has positioned us to run a very tight ship, and hope our officials and our employees will hang in there. Suburbs are pretty much all undergoing this kind of scenario and residents as well, and in our city thanks to bad spending habits and too much politics, voters have raised expectations as we learn to live within our means. Still and despite all this history, and a mall which may or may not ever be a major asset, we remain loyal to our city and hopeful we can keep the wheels turning and maintain good faith in our officials and our employees and appreciate our neighbors and our school district which continue to be a sense of pride for us.
12:00 PM Blogger: Please allow me to ask you if you are willing to hand over the purse strings to the following.
Mayor Robinson
John Foote
Chris Pickel
Mimi Duncan
Deb Beasley
If not (and I am not) it's a moot point !
I refuse to put these people in a position to lie to me again (Prop "S" extension,) and I have seen some of their foolish and wasteful spending (bridges we can't use, duplicate dog catcher services.) So as for me I will vote against a tax increase that will allow any of them to waste more money until, and when they resign or are voted out of office !
If you still wish to blame someone, do it at City hall where the hunting grounds are most fertile, not the good Citizens of Crestwood who have to put up with these spend thrifts !
Tom Ford
again with the "duplicate services and the bridge". Really, if these are the only 2 things you can find to go on about, then this city's doing pretty well. It's always the same things...animal control, bridge, animal control, bridge. Get some new material or admit that you really don't have all that much to gripe about. It's a broken record now.
6:41 PM Blogger: I would have thought that by now you would have recognized that animal control and the bridge were but a vignette of what's really wrong with Crestwood !
You see I use these two glaring entities as a vehicle to point out wasteful spending in our community.
Have you bothered to note that tax revenue was down in May (well below projections,) and if that continues in June, some mid course budget corrections MUST be made.
Our spending is out of control in Crestwood during the current Obama "recession," and if we do not rein it in, were going to be in serious trouble very soon !
These are but two places where expenses can and must be cut to prolong the agony of a return to the Royal Bank with our hat's in our hand ! So you see, it's not about the issues as much as it is about leaders who are "whistling through the grave yard !"
And, no were not in very good shape, just fill out a FOIA form and see for yourself ! In closing please allow me to thank you for your comment's and I trust this will help you understand why I continue to harp on these two "monuments to wasteful spending."
Tom Ford
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