Indianapolis Diverts Nearly $120 Million Annually To TIF Slush Funds

UPDATED: Fellow blogger Pat Andrews continues to do yeoman's work ignored by the mainstream media about the financial hole created in Indianapolis' city-county budget through the diversion of property tax revenues to TIF slush funds used to finance development projects for the politicians' campaign contributors. The latest numbers she's obtained from the Marion County Auditor's Office show that Indianapolis' far-flung TIF districts are expected to capture close to $118 million this year in property tax revenues. The consolidated downtown TIF district alone will capture $68 million. About $2 billion worth of the assessed value of real property in Indianapolis falls within a TIF district. These figures don't even account for the hundreds of millions of dollars lost annually through property tax abatement passed out by the administration and council to reward campaign contributors.

The numbers for the new North Midtown TIF are quite startling. In its first year of operation, the TIF district went from a zero increment to $470,000 despite the fact that there was no new construction to add to the TIF's increment, $283,000 worth of property within the district was demolished and over $755,000 came off the tax rolls due to tax abatements awarded by the council. So how could $470,000 be attributed to the increment? According to Andrews, all property tax abatements granted prior to the creation of the TIF district are attributed to the newly-created TIF district. Note: Andrews corrected her initial number for the North Midtown TIF, which was incorrectly stated as $470 million instead of $470,000. She now estimates the old abatements will spin off about $4 million to the TIF district over the next decade.

Meanwhile, the Ballard administration is gloating over another planned downtown development being announced today that Cummins intends to build a $30 million corporate office building downtown on the remaining Market Square Arena property adjacent to Flaherty & Collins' planned 28-story, high-rise luxury apartment building to which the downtown TIF will contribute at least $40 million over the next 25 years. According to the Star, Cummins will receive a 10-year tax abatement and will be donated the land valued at $4.3 million. The City will also spend $3.3 million to build a new parking garage and other infrastructure improvements for Cummins. Add up all the benefits and city taxpayers are fronting at least one-third of the cost of constructing the $30 million building. The office building will house up to 400 employees, about 100 of which will initially come from office space the company currently leases at two other downtown locations. Cummins plans to transfer about 150 employees from its Columbus office to the new location.

You people need to ponder these numbers very carefully. This administration and our city-county council will be going public with a plan to raise your taxes within the next few months, which you will be told is absolutely necessary to adequately fund public safety and pay for basic city services. That's in addition to the new income tax the mayor and council intend to levy on you to pay for an expansion of the mass transit system into a regional system that extends into the suburbs. In 2007, your income taxes were raised 65% for what was dubbed as a public safety tax increase. This administration and council diverts more money to the TIF slush funds every year than you started paying in higher taxes back in 2007. We don't have money to pay for basic services because these rat bastards believe that funding the private development projects of their largest campaign contributors is more important than spending our money for the purposes it was intended to be spent. TIFs are nothing more than a criminal racket that grants a license to our elected officials to steal our tax dollars and give them away to people stuffing money in their pockets. Until you rise up and stop this madness, this criminal racket will continue unabated, your taxes will keep rising and your standard of living will continue to fall as it has precipitously over the past several years. You must get in the politicians' faces, show them your intense anger and make them fear for their political lives if you expect any changes to come.

Yesterday, Gov. Mike Pence signed into law massive tax cuts for businesses that will do nothing more than create a shift in taxes to individuals. The corporate tax rate is being slashed to a rate Gov. Pence boasts will be the second-lowest in the country. That legislation also allows local governments to award super tax abatements to businesses for up to 20 years on their personal property business taxes. That's likely to set off a competition among communities across the state to see who can outdo other communities in offering larger tax breaks to attract businesses to move within the state to localities promising the least amount of taxes. Somebody has to pay for all of this madness, and the burden will ultimately fall on individual taxpayers. You mark my word.