This evening, State Senator and announced candidate for Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett was the featured speaker at the West Knox Republican Club. Knox County Commissioner Craig Leuthold asked Burchett what was his position on TIF's (Tax Increment Financing). Burchett was quick to say that he OPPOSED TIF's. A follow up question was what his position is with the City of Knoxville issuing TIF's. He was not as readily with a position on the follow up question. With many of the TIF's like Northshore Center (at Northshore Drive and Pellissippi Parkway) the City issues a TIF and then Knox County is expected to proceed in addition to the City's contribution.
3 comments:
for anyone that believes in tifs...I got a big useless metal shed in Knoxville that cuts jobs I would love to sell you...heck, I will even throw in the Brooklyn Bridge! Oh wait the tax payers already bought the Tifs for the shed.
I think his opposition to tif's is a great point for his campaign. We fought the retail tif for Graham's Lowes in Halls, and got policy changes made to protect the citizens. So, a candidate actually opposing tif's in the county is very good. We need to know which candidates are not the "developer's back pocket buddy".
So it's ok for the city to convert old buildings to condos (usually the same group of developers-can you say frat bros) and they make no return to the county coffers for many years and some individuals very wealthy immediately. But Jousha's Landing(all the stores combined in the complex) collected over a million dollars in sales tax last year from which Knox county was able to pay many of the costs of running this county. TIFFS for retail establishments but no more tiffs for residential, they have no ROI. bruce
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