DeAnn Reed

Special Assessments

Property Taxes

Incentives

Mom - taxpayer

Political science background - Public Policy

Small business owner

Worked for the Omaha Chamber

Specials. People are increasingly not coming to West Fargo to purchase homes. Current homeowners are angry about the amount of specials. The elderly are being forced to decide if they can stay in their house. Specials are an infrastructure deferment to the homeowner and businesses. North Dakota is #1 in specials per capita and West Fargo leads the state in this distinction. North Dakota is apart of a handful of states that do this. People who move in or who want to move into this community find it a bizarre way to deal with updating infrastructure and or as a financial mechanism of passing off the cost of developing an area to the homeowner.

We make it attractive by getting rid of specials and incentives. Reduce the burden of government on the people. It’s hurting our workforce because we are seen as too damn expensive to live in West Fargo. It picks winners and losers.

Imagine getting rid of specials, just think about that for a second, (pause) - would it increase or decrease the people in our city? And would it open the door to a more business friendly climate? I believe it would! No one ever comes to a place with high taxes if they can avoid. In fact, they leave.

They divert funds from the schools and cities. There is really good data that suggests they ended up hurting local cities (things like TIFs). This includes tax abatements. After the abatement is gone people leave. I have a friend who works in the lending industry. She is telling me this is true. I think they hurt the core of the city too.

The average homeowner used to buy older homes and remodel them. They are not doing that as much anymore. We need to ask ourselves - what are we incentivizing? We are incentivizing people to buy new homes that they cannot really afford because the true cost of owning that home is hidden in the specials. When people buy new homes with incentives to buy a bigger home, that only ends up skewing the market in the long run. It erodes the core of the city, which is the older neighborhoods.

“An Iowa study of TIF usage concluded that, “On net (…) there is no evidence of economy-wide benefits, fiscal benefits, or population gains. Another study from Illinois found that economic growth in cities that did not use TIF was stronger than in cities that did, because TIF subsidies caused an inefficient allocation of resources.

Consistent with those findings, cities’ heavy use of TIF has distorted economic growth and subsidized less efficient, ... Citizens are free to choose between shopping at Walmart or mom-and-pop stores, but cities should not give Walmart an advantage over their competition through subsidies.” (https://showmeinstitute.org/blog/subsidies/tif-is-a-bad-idea-that-refuses-to-die)

Open up zoning to new types of homes. The city has a specific role its to keep taxes low, sustainable and predictable. Without predictability we are creating an erratic market for home and business owners. If we keep this up, West Fargo will be the town that went from BOOM to BUST!

We also have a land issue. There is not enough land. The diversion will change that. But the city needs to budget, have a plan and that plan should include no specials.