Earth to dumbasses the geniuses on the Dayton City Commission, sorry, too little too late.
Sure, your brilliant idea to turn the temporary tax hike into a permanent one seemed like such a brilliant idea- as you watch the last of your victims of taxation without representation move to the tax-free haven of 2nd story jobs at Austin Landing (only the little people on the first floor pay income taxes there).
It wasn’t just the 2.25% income tax, or the fact that they have to pay to park, but, then you had to add a Special Improvement Tax to pay for the “Downtown Dayton Partnership” which hires a Kentucky company to do what building owners used to do for themselves, and cities used to do as part of the general tax. Oh, yes, and then there was the issue of the kids running the streets- during “Urban Fights” – I mean, “Urban Nights” and the general issues around the bus hub. Oh, and, the fact that you let the feds shut down almost every downtown exit on 75 for years- forcing detours and slowdowns to get to downtown- while Austin Landing has that ridonkulously overpriced new exit. You know- the one you tacitly approved of in your “partnership” with ED/GE- another tax funded slush fund that takes hard-working taxpayers’ money and gives it to private corporations- or “invests it” to help out the rich and powerful.
Here’s the “story” from the Dayton Daily news:
While residential real estate in downtown Dayton booms, there is a different tale with commercial development, as entire high-rises remain vacant and workers continue an exodus to suburban office plazas.
Now, after years of losing downtown jobs, the city of Dayton has a new strategy for fighting back.
The Dayton City Commission last week approved a sweeping change to its existing ordinances on property tax breaks in the downtown district that — for the first time — will make incentives available to proposed commercial/office and industrial developments. Those breaks could be 25 percent or higher.
The city will negotiate the breaks with the developer along with the Dayton School Board, which must be consulted by law. The breaks will be allowed in other Community Reinvestment Act areas in the city as well….
Said Mayor Nan Whaley: “We need these tools to be aggressive in attracting business to downtown.”…
Also part of the city’s changes:•Update the 15 Community Reinvestment Act areas to make rules consistent, allowing for commercial tax breaks in all 13 of the CRA areas that don’t allow them now. Other areas covered by the act include the Old North Dayton and Cook Field area and Webster Station — an area east of Patterson Boulevard to Keowee Street.
•Allow new residential construction to be property tax exempt for 15 years automatically. New renovations are exempt for ten years, consistent with previous ordinances.
Source: New strategy: Commercial developers to get tax breaks [1]
How about this instead:
- Stop all tax dollar incentive for private businesses that aren’t available universally for job creation- i.e., no single company benefits. Either you meet the payroll criteria or not. This would be countywide.
- Eliminate all tax-free zones in the county. Flatten the income tax rate to 1.5% on all wages above $24,000 per year per person. Distribute it to each jurisdiction based on numbers of people according to the latest census. No more overhead for small business in trying to figure out payroll per employee per location worked per tax rate.
- Eliminate any tax support for outside organizations involved with “economic development” forcing all tax dollars to go to actual public services. End support of CityWide Development, The Downtown Dayton Partnership, ED/GE, the Dayton Development Coalition, the I-75 whatever you call it, and even MVRPC. Tax dollars go to projects for taxpayers- cut out middlemen, cut out slush funds, and eliminate overhead.
- Put a moratorium on new construction unless you buy and demolish an equal number of units/square feet in the county. Get double construction credit for rehab/restore/repurpose of any structure over 50 years old.
- Until we’re back to pumping at 80% capacity- give away water to large business users in exchange for jobs and investment. The costs of flooding basements is higher.
- Grant tax breaks for people who work downtown and live downtown to eliminate parking problems. Grant them a break on the first $50,000 of income.
That’s how you can begin to address your problems. Cutting funding for schools is the absolute LAST thing Dayton needs to do right now, that is if you don’t want to see an exodus of the last remaining victims of your bad stewardship of Dayton and its resources for the last 50 years.
“….the tax free haven of 2nd story jobs at Austin Landing (only the little people on the first floor pay income taxes there).” – DE
Whether you pay the Austin Center income tax is not determined by the floor on which you work. I’m pretty sure it is based upon the type of business. Businesses that do not have large numbers of customers coming and going are not subject to it. The wear and tear on the infrastructure from those businesses is considerably less than the thousands of cars patronizing the restaurant, retail and hospitality employers on a daily basis.
Judging by the quality and quantity of the retail, restaurant and hospitality employees I’ve interacted with at Austin Landing, I’m guessing the tax is a non-issue for most of them. Most must feel they are better compensated and have a better working experience at Austin Landing or they would go to the myriad of retail/restaurants that are in the area.
A tax is a cost to a business even if it is a tax on the employee. Employers have to pay their employees more in order to offer competitive take home pay. Those higher wages are paid for through higher prices paid by the customers.
I agree with some of your message here David but, eh your green slip is showing.” You are a small business owner/operator that doesn’t employee a lot of people, don’t require commercial downtown space and you’re jealous that larger companies who do are the one’s getting tax breaks while you garner nothing out of the deal. Understood. You’ve been on this bandstand a long time calling it”corporate welfare.” Well, get used to it because that’s the way it’s done and Dayton has been pitifully behind the times (as usual) in adopting this tool and the result is empty buildings generating little or no tax. I strongly agree with eliminating worthless “economic development” corporations who suck the dollars out of projects. Number one on that “fecal roster” is Citywide Development. Shitty Wide’s admin fees for hair brained low impact projects (such as “tech town’s” empty buildings) are a crime. Yet there is need, strong need for economic development in Dayton, but the only results created by those that you didn’t list only do low income housing – hardly development and hardly the sustainable development the city center needs. “Moratorium on new construction?” Are you out of your mind? This is one of the biggest obstacles to development with Dayton in the toilet. Over and over again history fanatics in this town shoot down development because Orville and Wilber may have took a dump in some dilapidated shed. Build baby Build!!!! The newer the better. Buildings have a life cycle – new is good. To hell with restoring. Dayton already lives in the past the last thing we need is more polish on a turd. I don’t work downtown – in fact I work in Columbus and pay taxes to both cities. I wish I could live and work downtown but I have to make a living and there’s nothing downtown. Why would I want to grant tax breaks to individuals who aren’t creating jobs? At least he businesses that get tax breaks that you loath bring some employment! For once I agree with Nanny Whale and the Stooges but it’s awful… Read more »
@Joe- Horseshit- it’s based on if you are a white collar worker or a blue collar worker. It’s not the workers jobs to subsidize the infrastructure of their employers.
@Ralph- I’m not jealous- I just realize it isn’t working.
The reason for the tax break for those who live and work downtown- is because they WON’T require a car or parking as much. Which helps solve a major issue.
As to the moratorium without a swap- we’re grossly overbuilt- which has been driving values down. Unless population goes up- we don’t need more “new anything”-
and, if the new construction helped buy off the demolition- the city might have money for doing what it’s been neglecting for years- basic services.
“@Joe- Horseshit- it’s based on if you are a white collar worker or a blue collar worker. It’s not the workers jobs to subsidize the infrastructure of their employers.” – DE
LOL. Geez Dave. Nice ad hominem but alas you are wrong. The tax is based on what type of business. For example….everyone at my company is exempt, from the custodial staff and mail clerks to Vice Presidents. http://www.miamitownship.com/281/Joint-Economic-Development-Districts . See the bottom of the page.
Your economics misses the target as well. A tax is a cost to a business even if it is a tax on the employee. Employers have to pay their employees more in order to offer competitive take home pay. Those higher wages are paid for through higher prices paid by the customers.
@JoeMamma “everyone at my company is exempt, from the custodial staff and mail clerks to Vice Presidents.” because you have “second floor workers- white collar company.
We have to protect the lawyers, accountants, tech jobs that pay well enough to donate to political campaigns…
Putting a moratorium on new construction in Montgomery County unless a developer was forced to blow their money on buying a useless or outmoded building and demolishing it first is a surefire way to ensure the economic success of Springboro and Beavercreek, at the expense of Dayton. The former will have no problem becoming a boomtown at the northern edge of Cincinnati’s metro area, and the latter will continue to be propped up by the base… which is doing just fine without a municipal income tax, by the way.
If I were to land a job on base, my number one priority is moving the hell out of Dayton as fast as possible to ensure that none of my hard-earned tax dollars find their way to Nan’s pockets (or her political favorites).
That all said, most of the other ideas do make more sense – although I don’t foresee the city not continuing to pick and choose winners at the expense of everyone else.