It was recently announced by the Branson R-IV School District that they will be going to the voters for the first increase in the mil levy on real estate taxes for the district in about 20 years. Might not a reasonable person wonder about the possibility that the city of Branson’s use of Tax Increment Financing, (TIF) is a contributing factor in the need for increased taxes for Branson’s schools?
Well, they need wonder no more. At a recent Branson Board of Aldermen meeting, the city of Branson’s city administrator, Terry Dody, addressed the issue of the city of Branson’s use of TIFs as relates to the proposed school tax increase. Among other things he said, “They are working enormously successfully and the school district is not having to raise its mil levy because of the TIF districts. The TIF Districts are actually positively impacting them.”
Now the Ole Seagull isn’t too bright but is there just the possibility that the thousands of relatively low paying jobs that were created by Branson’s TIFs brought lots of new kids into the Branson school district resulting in the increase of thousands of dollars per student per year to educate them? Is it also possible that at the same time, one of the primary sources of funding for the school district, commercial real estate taxes, on the very property used to generate the new students, is being confiscated by the city of Branson for its own economic development purposes?
“But Seagull, didn’t Dody say that the TIF Districts are actually positively impacting the school district?” Apparently so and in addition it appears that he closed his presentation with the conclusion that “it is absolutely incorrect to say that the school district is having to raise, in part, their mil levy because of the TIFs.”
It has been the Ole Seagull’s experience that Dody says a lot of things but, at the end of the day, what’s important is the truth. May an Ole Seagull suggest that those having the responsibility for running the Branson school district, its board and administrators, are in a much better position than is Mr. Dody to provide that truth.
From an Ole Seagull’s perspective, it is inconceivable that the city of Branson’s use of TIFs is not, in the very least, a contributing factor in the school district having to ask the voters for the tax increase. Said another way, and using a paraphrase of Dody’s closing statement, the Ole Seagull believes that “It is absolutely correct to say that the school district is having to raise, at least in part, their mil levy because of TIFs.”
