Welfare for Walmart??
Corporate Welfare Again The most alarming aspect of the proposed Walmart is that as much as $1,800,000 of our tax revenue will be paid to Walmart, the largest corporation and wealthiest family in the world! It's called a TIF (Tax Incremental Financing) see link and this . They want us to help them re-mediate the soil People with experience in large retail development are chuckling at how absurd it was for our City to concede such a lopsided deal. The City claims they would have to pay $800k to clean the land no matter who buys so it doesn't count. We flatly disagree details
Note: An alderman claims that some of this information is misleading. These are very complex transactions based in large part on projections. We asked the alderman to write a rebuttal which we will be happy to post. No reply in 6 months!
Tax Revenue Shell game Walmart has one of the slickest development teams in the world. They probably wowed our Common Council with the pitch that after we repay the bond, the $200k/year of tax revenue and “jobs” will justify us paying them. Oh really? Well for starters, it could actually take 14 years to pay the $1.8mm not just nine. see chart
Then we tax payers won't see a dime in return until the bond is paid. After that, the City must begin giving an extra share to Milwaukee County, MATC, etc. What we'll wind up with could be as puny as $70,000 per year ! It's just not worth it.
Furthermore, by the time the TIF is paid, Walmart will probably close the store anyway that they were leasing (for tax purposes) and leave the city with an empty lot. Such is the case in five other South East Wisconsin Walmarts. We'd be stuck with a vacant lot all over again but this time with a building to demolish. See photo below see this link
TIFs Are Very Risky There's a huge gamble whether the projected assessed tax "increment" after it's paid off in 2025 will be what they projected it would be in 2011. That is precisely how many small communities got into financial jams using TIFs. The increase in assessment doesn't turn out like projected so they wind up losing out. see this link or this
Alert! Just this week on Feb 13th, the City voted to borrow $1,535,000 for this very reason see Latest Updates
Walmart has a notorious army of tax attorneys that frequently appeal tax assessments and use schemes to avoid paying. Four years ago the State of Wisconsin had to chase Walmart for a $17 million dollarstax dodge scheme. open this article
Lastly, when you factor in all the additional infrastructure costs the City would have to pay as a result of the Walmart, like street repairs, police staffing, etc. we might very well lose out with our $1.8mm TIF (pronounced "gift") to Walmart studies
Note: An alderman claims that some of this information is misleading. These are very complex transactions based in large part on projections. We asked the alderman to write a rebuttal which we will be happy to post. No reply in 6 months!
Tax Revenue Shell game Walmart has one of the slickest development teams in the world. They probably wowed our Common Council with the pitch that after we repay the bond, the $200k/year of tax revenue and “jobs” will justify us paying them. Oh really? Well for starters, it could actually take 14 years to pay the $1.8mm not just nine. see chart
Then we tax payers won't see a dime in return until the bond is paid. After that, the City must begin giving an extra share to Milwaukee County, MATC, etc. What we'll wind up with could be as puny as $70,000 per year ! It's just not worth it.
Furthermore, by the time the TIF is paid, Walmart will probably close the store anyway that they were leasing (for tax purposes) and leave the city with an empty lot. Such is the case in five other South East Wisconsin Walmarts. We'd be stuck with a vacant lot all over again but this time with a building to demolish. See photo below see this link
TIFs Are Very Risky There's a huge gamble whether the projected assessed tax "increment" after it's paid off in 2025 will be what they projected it would be in 2011. That is precisely how many small communities got into financial jams using TIFs. The increase in assessment doesn't turn out like projected so they wind up losing out. see this link or this
Alert! Just this week on Feb 13th, the City voted to borrow $1,535,000 for this very reason see Latest Updates
Walmart has a notorious army of tax attorneys that frequently appeal tax assessments and use schemes to avoid paying. Four years ago the State of Wisconsin had to chase Walmart for a $17 million dollarstax dodge scheme. open this article
Lastly, when you factor in all the additional infrastructure costs the City would have to pay as a result of the Walmart, like street repairs, police staffing, etc. we might very well lose out with our $1.8mm TIF (pronounced "gift") to Walmart studies
