Limiting Tax Incentives Could Decrease Inequality in St. Louis
Date Posted: February 27, 2018
Posted In: Discussion, News,
From St. Louis Public Radio: A coalition critical of the tax relief St. Louis awards developers wants lawmakers to make processes to grant tax incentives more transparent and more equitable.
When it started in 2016, Team TIF focused on education. But now that the public is more aware of how the city grants developers incentives, the coalition is pushing for policy changes, volunteer Molly Metzger said.
“The problems that we see in St. Louis and other cities — of racial segregation, of stark inequality — these are not created by markets alone. They are created by markets that were structured by governments,” said Metzger, a professor who studies housing policy at Washington University’s Brown School of Social Work.
“Because government created the problem in large part, I think it’s very much appropriate that government would also be part of the solution,” she said.
New tax-incentive regulations could encourage developers to spread their projects throughout the city. That could decrease racial and economic inequality, Metzger said.
The city has moved forward on some procedures that complement the group’s goals. Last year, the St. Louis Development Corporation, the agency that recommends whether a development should receive the city’s help, committed to building an online portal to give the public easier access to incentive-related documents. The decision came after a report the SLDC commissioned found that the city would not collect about $709 million in tax revenue because of tax abatements and tax increment financing — or TIF — city officials awarded developers between 2000 and 2014. During last year’s mayoral primary, then-candidate Lyda Krewson endorsed “inclusionary zoning,” regulations that in other cities have required developers to provide low-income housing in exchange for tax incentives.
But Team TIF is pursuing new state and local rules on such incentives and commitments from the city.