Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders announced today that he's going to challenge the composition of the Kansas City Tax-Increment Financing Commission in court.
The TIF Commission evaluates requests for incentives that developers bring. When approved, TIF plans more or less freeze property taxes in a designated area. The county and other entities that rely on property taxes complain the program has been too generous.
TIF Commission is largely a creature of City Hall. The mayor appoints six members, who comprise the voting majority. Sanders says the current arrangement does not meet state law, according to report filed earlier today by Mike Mahoney's sideburns.
It's not just the voting arrangement that annoys Sanders. Officials from the county, the Kansas City Public Library and the Kansas City, Missouri, School District have accused the TIF Commission's support staff of carrying out its own agenda. I wrote last fall about a TIF plan the TIF Commission's executive director and legal counsel tried to keep alive after the commissioners voted to end it.
Mayor Mark Funkhouser's appointments have made the TIF Commission a less developer-friendly place than it was when Kay Barnes was mayor. But Sanders and Funkhouser do not wield their light sabers in unison. Sanders announced his suit the day after the acting city manager submitted a budget that reduces KCMO's contribution to the Jackson County Sports Complex Authority.
Comments (0)