This came in your mail today, if you are a Sioux Center resident and a voter. Here’s a PDF version if you need to print some extras. “You are going to see more crashes, and more severe crashes. Bottom line? You’re going to see more blood on the pavement if you convert Highway 75 to […]
This is the conclusion from “Tax Increment Financing Growth in Iowa” by Dave Swenson and Liesl Eathington, Department of Economics, Iowa State University, April, 2006. Tax Increment Finance districts are a large and rapidly growing component of Iowa’s economic development infrastructure and its property tax base. This report shows that the amount of valuation contained within TIF districts is, in the […]
The Iowa Fiscal Partnership (IFP) is fighting for TIF reform in Iowa because TIFs have gotten out of control in Iowa cities. The IFP notes that in the 1980s, “Iowa cities were allowed to start using TIF for economic development, broadly defined,” instead of being restricted to renewal projects for old housing stock and commercial […]
In this TED talk Minnesotan and executive director of Strong Towns Chuck Marohn explains the difference between a road, which is a connection to two place and a street, which is a network of activity. Too often they have been melded together in a hybrid monster Marohn calls a “Stroad.” He stresses the importance of returning proper roads […]
This short video by the North Dakota Policy Council describes what tax increment financing is along with its origins and the problems associated with it.
This article is by Chuck Marohn, director of StrongTowns.org in Minnesota and is reprinted here with his permission. Learn more at StrongTowns.org and check out their weekly podcast show. We often forget that the American pattern of suburban development is an experiment, one that has never been tried anywhere before. We assume it is the natural order because […]
