The Wichita City Council acted wisely Tuesday in voiding, if only temporarily, the tax increment financing designation for 30 blocks around the Intrust Bank Arena. In doing so, it was responding to understandable concerns raised by Sedgwick County Manager William Buchanan about the broader fiscal impact of the TIF district. The split over the issue must to be resolved in a way that funds needed projects and spurs private development without drawing down too much of the tax base. And the sparkling new arena must not end up a diamond in the rough of its neighborhood.
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11 Comments
The one half billion dollar white elephant ice hockey downtown arena wastes a humongous amount of tax dollars that are now needed for a multitude of other important public needs.
Now most of its supporters have moved on to other cities across the country to again try to sell non-existent band uniforms but leaving the bills behind.
We should have concentrated on renewing downtown Wichita into a sparkling destination area that all regional citizens could be proud of. I often thing of a comparison to the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City but, of course, using a different theme.
It does appear the original ruinous decision to build an unneeded arena never quits giving more opportunities to be destructive. A few of those County Commissioners have learned the lesson of karma. The City Council also needs to be firmly reminded what goes around comes around!
Does “build it and they will come,” refer to ever more complications?
“…the sparkling new arena must not end up a diamond in the rough of its neighborhood.”
So they raise the taxes and build it there anyway, without a plan for the neighborhood or for parking or for the arena’s uses.
Brilliant!
Reminder: George Fahnestock led the effort to get this arena built!
He led the effort that misled, misinformed and downright tricked voters.
This same man who was soooo good at getting into our pockets for a project that will never quit getting into our pockets, is now leading the push for a $370 million school bond issue.
How will he mislead, misinform and trick voters this time?
Beware the trickster! Don’t be misled twice.
The Arena budget narrowly approved by taxpayers was to include about $30 million for parking and infrastructure. This is what we were told by the ‘Vote Yea’ crowd. Unfortunately that has been eaten up by cost overruns in the core construction part of the project – up by 45%.
It was going to save us from county taxes being raised too! Remember? Vote for the arena and you’ll have a one cent increase in sales tax for a limited time INSTEAD OF a county tax increase. Turns out it was IN ADDITION TO!
We were lied to, we were mislead, and that decision won by tricking the voters just keeps giving more opportunities to get into our pockets. And if the decisions on how to spend our money can go to the GOBN they spend it faster!
Maybe Bill Warren needs some more money and we can dig just a little deeper…
See above. Does the phrase “good money after bad” ring a bell?
Yup.
So many told ya so. This monstrosity was built just so some politicos could build a monument to put their names on. And to feed the contractors and developers who are pocketing the profits, of course.
Congratulations, Wichita and Sedgwick County. You have a big, pretty, empty, money pit.
Downtown will never be revitalized or anything even similar to the Plaza in KC as long as it’s filled to the brim with homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and food banks….it has become a mecca for the prostitutes and the homeless and transient population. No one wants to hang out down there because you constantly get harrassed.
All the kind hearts in Wichita have ruined our downtown. No one wants to buy and restore property in Midtown…who would want to raise their family in that environment?
Mary et al:
When I arrived back here in Wichita in about 1997 or so, I saw the need to renovate downtown Wichita and wanted to be a part of this. In Kansas City, I was in commercial real estate and officed and worked in the beautiful historic Country Club Plaza in Kansas City.
When I came to Wichita in the late 1990’s for family reasons, one of my goals was to work with the powers to be to renovate downtown Wichita. It had obviously deteriorated from its times of grandeur that I remembered from the 1950’s and 60’s and in many visits to Wichita.
There were then two main ways to rejuvenate downtown Wichita:
1) Attack the problem head-on by developing a comprehensive plan for the area with lots of input from citizens, stakeholders, business people. Then develop a system of financing, probably with the sales tax.
OR
2) Draw a circle around a few blocks and build the downtown ice hockey arena which might also serve as an accoustically poor location for concerts as a sales point. Then extract 1/2 billion dollars out of Wichita’s taxpayers in a way that provided maximum waste. Then tell the taxpayers that this arena monument to government waste would draw businesses into the area in such a way to privately redevelop downtown Wichita.
Obviously this hasn’t worked. The promoters have mostly skipped town leaving Wichita taxpayers holding the bag waiting for the non-existent band uniforms.
This second program was the brainstorm of the Sedgwick County Commissioners and some out of town hired gun bureaucrats and architects and contractors. They were in a hurry to extract ONE HALF BILLION DOLLARS ($500,000,000.37) from the hard working middle class taxpayers of Sedgwick County via the sales tax before someone might want to use this money for a beneficial purpose.
With plan #1 above … something great might have been accomplished in a large radius of downtown Wichita including from Hillside on the east, West street on the west, the freeway on the north and at least Pawnee on the south. Also for the amount of the sales tax extraction, renovation work in each of the incorporated communities in Sedgwick County could have also been accomplished.
And schools renovated. Bridges rebuilt. Water lines, storm and sanitary sewers rebuilt.
NOW OUR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS AND WICHITA CITY COUNCIL PEOPLE ARE IN A HUGE BATTLE BEHIND THE SCENES BLAMING EACH OTHER FOR THE SUPER EXPENSIVE DOWNTOWN WHITE ELEPHANT ARENA THAT EVERY ONE WISHES HAD NEVER BEEN THOUGHT OF.
And the taxpayers are revolting against other needed improvements because they truly feel cheated by the arena project. Who can imagine in their wildest dreams paying ONE HALF BILLION DOLLARS FOR AN ICE HOCKEY RINK WITH A MILLION DOLLARS WORTH OF ZAMBONIES SCRAPING THE ICE?
It’s truly the ICE RINK TO NO WHERE … right here in Wichita, RIVER CITY, USA.
You’re figures are all wrong, out-of-town squatter JWink. And you know it. But you’re stubborn like a drunkard.
bht – The Arena budget has over $30 million for parking, thanks to the HUGE success that a sales tax for the project brought in. It went way above all of any of the most optimistic expectations. That you cannot deny.
The good thing about that, is that it covers any of the construction cost overruns, brought in by higher cost of materials and the like (thank the JWink Bush Rove economics for that) and the money is here and now and every cent accounted for.
Unlike the other non-voting option, which would be to renovate Britt Brown of a borrowed bond cost of over $200 million, which $100 million would have lined the pockets of muni-bond investors.
Borrowing for a project is poor policy, collecting the money then paying for it is much better. The DT Arena is and will be one of the best successful public project we have going on in our area.
I guess we could have gone the JWink route and let the county get sued for millions of dollars for not making Britt Brown ADA compliant. Then close it down for two and half years, then spend $100 million upgrading it and $100 million to the pockets of investors. Doesn’t sound smart. Sounds like a Bush plan if I ever saw one.
Joe! I agree that the tax collected more than projected. However, I deny that “The Arena budget has over $30 million for parking” THAT is not true. The extra money has been eaten up by the 45% cost overruns in core costs – from 123 million to 179 million. Parking, infrastructure and operating reserve were promised at $52 million. That has been slashed to 15 million.
I do not recall JWink advocating not bringing Britt Brown up to standards. Can you substantiate that claim?
As for raising money first vs borrowing I know many businessmen who disagree. They realize that it is often best tp borrow and ’strike when the iron is hot’ when an opportunity arises. Besides; we could also have done sales tax for Britt Brown and you know that.
Joe! I hope your Arena succeeds. I hope you get good events there. I hope I get to go and see UCLA play an NCAA basketball game. But, I am not holding my breath.
We shall see …