All the Lights Are on But Nobody’s Home
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 at 9:30AM 
BATTLE JOINED summer intern, “Toby the Intern,” recently took a “midnight ride” though Franklin Business Park on his trusty steed “Ranger,” and -- to his surprise -- found that ALL the many, “fancy-schmancy” street lights in this 425 acre business park were on, but "99.9%" of the businesses “weren’t home!”
Although just a summer intern, the ever-curious Toby wonders why Franklin Business Park, a corporate development for office and light industrial use, has its street lights burning all night? And make no mistake; there are a lot of “fancy-schmancy” street lights.
It may come as a surprise to some that Franklin Business Park is owned by MLG Commercial and developed by MLG Development in partnership with the City of Franklin Community Development Authority (chaired by Mayor Taylor), and the City of Franklin (Franklin citizens).
With ever-rising energy costs and outrageously high property taxes in this city, any city leader(s) with an ounce of common sense would look for ways to reduce spending; not waste taxpayer dollars. It’s apparent to Toby and BATTLE JOINED that this is too much to expect from Franklin’s leaders.
Reader Comments (4)
Fred,
Since the vast majority of tax revenue collected from the businesses located within the Franklin Business Park is TIF Increment, and that TIF Increment tax revenue is dedicated to paying off the improvement bonds. Then the burden of paying the public utility bills falls on all of the remaining good taxpayers of Franklin. Along with the costs of snowplowing and street maintenance, utility repair and maintenance, police patrol and protection, fire protection and EMT rescue services, general city services that include all other governmental administrative services that are supported by tax revenues. In other words... everything the government does (administration, city clerk, assessor, treasurer, health and human services, planning, engineering, inspection, library etc., etc., etc.). Remember the TIF increment is going to paying off the bonds, not for meeting the day to day costs of operations. The rest of the taxpayers in the city get that bill.
Another interesting tidbit… and most TIF advocates use this argument as justification. All of the taxing authorities that are recipients of revenue from the TID forgo their share of the increment also, and that money is also used to retire the bond issues. This means that Milwaukee County, MATC, MMSD, FPS, etc. are all helping to retire the bond issues. The question is… do those taxing authorities forgo an equal amount of spending each year? Or do they just increase their levy’s to make up for the lost revenue. It’s pretty hard to figure out the answer to that question… hey?
From the TIF #2 Project Plan dated January 5, 1993...
“Tax Increment District No. 2 (TID No. 2) of the City of Franklin is created primarily to promote industry as authorized by Wisconsin Statutes 66.52, to provide greater employment opportunities, to broaden the property tax base and to relieve the tax burden of residents and home owners.”
Well… three outta four ain’t bad. And this has been going on since 1993 for TID No. 2… 14+ years. And we have two additional TID’s, No. 3 (NML) and No. 4 (Wheaton) also.
A good question now is… when TID No. 2 closes out sometime within the next two years and the increment is returned to the general tax rolls. Will the taxpayer see any tax relief in terms of this money being used to reduce the tax rate we pay? Or, will elected officials see this “windfall” as a reason to go on a spending spree (or worse, use it to mitigate past spending sprees)? It’s pretty hard to figure out the answer to that question also.
I ran into Toby the other day… tell him I apologize for the wedgie.
I asked Jim Milzer last month what we will do with the TID 2 money when it comes due in 2011...he said we won't be seeing much of that money. I assumed he meant the District,,,perhaps he meant the Board (who in essence is the taxpayer). I'll have to follow up on that.
By the way - You call Toby an "intern." When someone employs an intern, and tells me that is what they are when I inquire, then that's what I call them. Nothing personal. So, I hope it's alright for me to refer to Toby as an "intern."
Janet (the "Rookie")
FranklinNOW Blogger who blogs for Mark Maley, who refers to his interns as "interns"
Janet,
By law the portion of the TIF Increment assigned to the FPS District has to be returned to the FPS District after the TID is closed out. Perhaps certain people would rather the public didn't know about that "windfall" coming into the District. The easier to just mix it in with the spending without too many questions being asked.
A more revealing question would be... How has FPS tempered their spending during the past 14 years to account for the lost revenues each year? In fact, it wasn't lost revenue at all, it was expected payments to the TID of revenues that many not have even materialized but for the TID.
The taxing (and spending) authority is the elected Board of Education so I don't see how Mr. Milzner has any final say in what happens to the future increment money. Maybe Mr. Milzner's answer to your question is an indication that the district plans on recommending the returning of the money to the taxpayer's in the form of taxpayer relief. I won't hold my breath.
Scott,
Thanks for this great insight into TID and how it is SUPPOSED to benefit taxpayers when retired, not go to fund the next pet-project of corrupt politicians in this city.
The questions you raise need to be fully answered by the common council and Mayor Taylor, and Franklin voters need to hold the crooks in this city accountable for their highly suspect actions and the shell games they play with taxpayer dollars.