Dateline St. Paul, Mn. --Grace Kelly proposes TIF for homeowners

(Ed. note. In a search recently for Grace Kelly movies such as "To Catch a Thief," I happened to run across this post from St. Paul, Mn. Enjoy. )



Posted 29 Dec 2005 08:25 by Grace (nicknamed Kelly) Kelly

If the city wants to raise more tax money, then I think they should no longer
use tax increment financing, since basically that gives developers free
taxes. I say free taxes, since the tax money that developers do pay just goes
towards paying off their loan from the city and none of their taxes goes into
general fund. Oh please, St. Paul buy my mortgage and give me the same deal!
Hmm maybe we could just make all homeowners exempt, that would get someone many
votes. Hey, don't laugh, this is as good as the political logic of not taxing
developers.

Somewhere in here, we should be talking about fair taxing, which should be
state income taxes and secondarily city income taxes. I would see student taxes
as regressive, unless you see the taxes are actually being on the parents, in
which case then the tax might be more progressive.

How about getting more revenue from the Excel? How about a ugly billboard
tax? Instead of billboards that say that we buy ugly houses, we could have
taxes on ugly billboards to save houses from becoming ugly. How about we
double the taxes on all tax increment properties, in that way they will be
paying taxes and paying off loans, just like the rest of us.

Grace Kelly nicknamed Kelly
Campaigning for tax increment financing for homeowners in Merriam Park and in
St Paul.