Rolla Tea Party

This post is about Rolla's impending EEZ plan.  If you care about your property rights, read on.

First let me begin by saying I am not a lawyer or an elected official.  Let me follow that by saying that I do not have an infinite amount of time to read every possible bit of information published in my locale alone about economic development.  I do read the local paper, partake of some television and radio news, visit websites pertinent to this issue, discuss these sorts of topics with family and friends, and draw on a lifetime of trying to think for myself.  I consider myself well educated; I can read and use a dictionary. 

The topic for this post is central planning, as applied to a local economy.

In our state there is a legal mechanism for significantly reducing, for a number of years, the property taxes paid on new development. This is justified under "economic development."  (If economic development is the cathedral, job creation is the altar.)  Since 1981, apparently, under what was called the "Enterprise Zone," this was done such that industries could be enticed to build facilities and generate jobs in my area.  Since the property tax abatements under this program are to be retired by 2013, this is being supplanted by the EEZ, or "Enhanced Enterprise Zone."  This program "designates an area in which incentives are offered to targeted businesses for location or expansion, and these benefits can only be offered in areas/census tracts which meet the conditions of poverty or blight," according to a statement by the director of my local Economic Commission.  [All of Rolla "qualifies!"]

What are the incentives, you ask?  They are:

1)  Property tax abatement for at least 50% on improvements to real property for at least 10 years.  The local gov't may elect to abate a greater percentage and/or for longer,

2)  Tax credits from the State of Missouri roughly equaling 2% of the new investment each year for at most 5 years, and

3)  Incentives are offered to businesses with at least 2 new employees and a new investment (that is, a building/factory installation) of at least $100,000.  Payment of at least 50% of the health insurance costs for employees is also required. 

Apparently when the statute was crafted, there was concern that an EEZ would be designed to include tracts of property piecemeal, amounting to a "gerrymandering" of economic development.  In order to render this impossible, larger whole tracts are required--I believe contiguous census tracts.  This is perhaps due to the fact that 1) bystate law, the area must have a certain population range (requiring census data) and 2) also by state law, the area must meet certain unemployment and income guidelines (again, census data required.)*

See relevant Missouri statute, RSMo Section 135:       Here

We are told by our city's central planners that, though much of the proposed EEZ is not "plagued by blight," some areas/properties are in economic distress, such that on average, my entire city [Rolla!]  meets the numerical definition of blight.

This is the part where I just have to put my foot down.  I don't think my property is included, but the EEZ boundaries have changed multiple times, so there is little comfort in that.  What concerns me more is that my destiny is tied to the city's--those of you living just outside a city will understand--and, as per the Golden Rule, I can't bear to see this travesty visited on my neighbors.

What concerns me the most, however, are two things:

1)  This is central planning through the leverage of wealth redistribution.  The city/county requires a certain amount of revenue to operate; reducing the tax revenue from entity "A" necessitates a larger share of the tax burden being laid on entity "B".  This is absolute fact, and

2)  What is being done psychologically to this wide swath of people, in labeling their property "blighted?"  This insults the people, no matter how much the central planners try to assure everyone that no insult is intended.  It denigrates them and everything they have worked for.  It readies the people for dependency, instead of self-sufficiency, grooming them to ask for assistance from government.  [*Now we see how those intrusive census questions, i.e., "How much do you make per year?" are put to use.]

For whatever reason, the people of my nearby city do not seem to be as upset about this as the county residents are.  Two hearings have been scheduled, both of which are open to residents of both the cityand county:

6:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 13, City Council Chambers, Rolla City Hall, 901 North Elm Street, Rolla, Missouri

7:00 p.m. Wednesday, October 21, Phelps County Courthouse, 200 North Main, Rolla, Missouri

I sincerely hope these hearings are very heavily attended.