Sunday Poll: Should St. Louis End Development Incentives?

Today’s poll is about the controversial topic of incentives to spur development. In December 2017 a report from Comptroller Darlene Green said, for the 2017 fiscal year that ended in June, tax abatements resulted in forgoing about $17 million dollars in revenue — St. Louis only receives about 19% of property taxes.

St. Louis municipal operations, therefore, did not receive about $3.3 million in property taxes that property owners would have paid last fiscal year absent the incentives. The school district missed out on about $10.3 million. The remainder would have gone to other tax-supported entities, such as the Zoo-Museum District, the St. Louis Public Library and the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District.

For the city, the forgone revenue is a drop in the bucket of its $1 billion budget. And economic development officials argue that tax abatement can help revitalize distressed properties, potentially attracting new residents who also pay city sales taxes and earnings taxes to make up for the property tax break. (Post-Dispatch)

So here’s today’s poll question:

This poll will close automatically at 8pm tonight. Wednesday I’ll share my thoughts and the non-scienitific results.

— Steve Patterson